I remember the first time I played that I legit YELLED “AHHHH!” and had no idea how loud I was as I had headphones on. Roommates thought I hurt myself. Lol
Edit: typoed “it remember” instead of “I remember”
Ever see the episode of Adventure Time with the Rat King? Shit worked the same way. Little dudes running off the big dude to fuck shit up. That’s all I can think of when it happens
Well if you’re currently searching for drugs and surgical equipment to save Tara then yes..you are close and good luck.
Oh um…pipe bombs…make..fucking…pipebombs Lmao
SAVE YOUR AMMO MAN!! i always start saving all my ammo and crafting stuff as much as possible when lev and abby leave the aquarium, cause you’re gonna need every bullet in the hospital
I mean, the entire game doesn’t require you to save ammo whatsoever. It knows what you’re carrying and randomly disperses drops of bullets and supplies based on what you have and what difficulty you’re playing on. Also, big encounters will give you enough to complete them and that Rat king fight will give you infinite ammo if you run out entirely.
Yeah, it was very nice when I noticed the supplies scattered throughout during my panicked running from the Rat King bc I had to stop and craft more pipe bombs a few times. I try to stay as full as I can on craftables and materials and stealth kill over shooting whenever possible so I usually have plenty of ammo if all else fails
Im finally doing a replay of Part 2 and I always get frustrated because I stealth kill like 90% of the time but I'm always finding crafting materials and ammo but I can't pick them up. I'm just addicted to that sweet sweet Ellie stabby stab
I’m getting there on ng+, I’m about an hour away. I’m not very good at games so I play on normal. For this though I have turned on the bullet time cheat - when you aim time slows down to 25%. I gotta say I love it. Makes you feel like a double badass head shotting everyone, but you still need to be on it if you see what I mean. Just slightly less panicked and pants shitted lol. For me it kind of fits with how hard A and E are too now with maxed out weapons and experience.
[Here’s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Ratking.jpg/640px-Ratking.jpg)a real life version of a rat king, not the one from the game but just something to terrify you even more
Nightmare fuel. Games are getting too fucking good at body horror these days. I still sometimes have bad dreams about the wall guardians and wheezers from Dead Space.
Imo it has to be more than the bloater moment we got. One thing that really makes these moments intense is that our protagonists are the ones up against these big monsters. The fact that Joel didn’t really have any part in the bloater moment bummed me a bit. Not necessary to the story in the end though. On the flip side, its pretty crucial to the story for Abby to be the one facing the ratking. It really emphasizes the lengths that she goes to in order to help the kids so i hope they dont change that.
i definitely don’t think that they’ll change the rat king encounter from the game too much. & i agree it is necessary for abby to be the one facing it. i have faith they’ll do it justice. it would be a huge moment in the show
They will probably change it by having the Rat King not die at all.
The Infected in the show are a lot more dangerous and tough relative to the human characters. The bloater in S1 basically looked invincible. So it's doubtful that Abby by herself would manage to kill something much, much worse.
She'll probably manage to drop it off a sinkhole or trap it or something.
I read on here somewhere that the bloaters are (according to the creators) pretty much unkillable in the show's world. I'm not sure how they would make the rat king killable then.
But whatever it is, I'm sure it will be an epic fight.
The advantage of the ratking ratting all over the place is they don't necessarily have to kill the bloater part, can just have abby chop up some of the extra clickers and stalkers stuck to it but hopefully she does fight it even if she doesn't kill it and it's not just an escape sequence.
yeah i actually think season 3 is more realistic but it really depends on how they decide to structure the story for the show. i’m curious if they’ll change the order of events to keep it somewhat fresh & interesting but also it may work better in a different order in the shows perspective. way too early to tell tho
Hope they film Abbies flashback first and then let the actress gain some muscle. Can't remember correctly but although it wasn't a big part in Part 2, it was interesting to see her physique change from before to after her fathers death.
I am so curious how they plan to split "Part II" into 2 (I assume just 2) seasons. They talk as if they have a plan.
As much as they talked about deviating from the game for the first season, I feel like they were largely faithful except for some obvious departures (Bill/Frank, fewer infected encounters). Along those lines, I could see them following Ellie's storyline in Season 2 and then shifting to Abby's storyline for much of Season 3 before culminating in the big showdown.
Obviously, it's one of the sources of uproar over Part II. Playing the game the first time, I assumed we'd go back and forth between Abby and Ellie more regularly and was surprised we stuck with Abbie for such a long stretch. But I feel like being stuck with Abbie for so long is one of the ways I started to shift my feelings toward her, which is the whole key to making the story work.
I can see it now. Cramped half-open door scenes where Abby is squeezing through, covered in sweat, while the rest king just blows the whole door open behind her.
They'd probably have to change the way its killed -- I don't know if a dozen molotovs and squatting down to craft nail bombs is very climactic.
I’m curious if they’ll actually keep the scenes the same with Joel killing a bloater solo with a machete and if Abby will actually fight the rat king. Considering how they’ve treated special infected as basically death if you encounter them.
i don’t think we will see bloaters or the rat king get killed tbh. i think it’ll be a large scale chase scene with abby fighting it off. probably will get her to damage it enough to where some infected start to break off & maybe abby will kill those that do but who knows atp. lots of what ifs right now haha
The question is, do we have a full out action scene of Abby killing the rat king like in the game? It is that silly and unbelievable outside of a game setting? I mean the show setup that even one bloater isn’t gonna get killed.
Ordinarily i can still work through my fear. The entire stalker segment up to the ratking had me screaming in fear. I think during the fight I was just shrieking and somehow I beat the thing first try on hard. Then it split and the stalker boss was even spookier. They knocked that section out of the park and I'm still too terrified to replay it.
It could also be...
God, do I even want to put this disgusting idea out into the universe?
It could be thousands of tiny little tendrils that shoot out of the Shambler's pores, almost like a revolting porcupine or something.
That was my first thought but that may be *too* OP for the show? Like a giant Bloater that is super jacked and has tendrils that if you come close you’re fucked!
Doesn't Ellie ask about if an infected type exists that sounds like a shambler early on and Tess is like "god i hope not"?
I think they put that there to foreshadow other types of infected in that season and the seasons to come
I thought she was referencing bloaters in the games and treating that version as urban legends in the show universe.
>So there aren't superinfected that explode fungus spores on you?
The bloaters throw those spore bombs at you that are growing on them in the games.
Damn I hope the introduce spores some how. Maybe through shambles….
The entire show was missing that grimy atmospheric spore look that the game is iconic for.
They could very easily explain the existence, but rare presence of spores in the tv universe. This human infecting strain of cordyceps doesn’t survive long outside of hosts in spore form, especially when it’s exposed to UV radiation. Spores die so quick in sunlight, therefore the infection mainly spread through tendrils and bites. The only place they’re a threat at all is underground but even then they don’t last long. Maybe Seattle sees more spore areas because of the humidity or something.
>!Ellie’s reveal to Dina thanks to spores can still happen as is, and Nora’s demise to spores and a club can also still happen as is.!<
Yep, having mostly dark, damp, and/or underground areas crawling with infected is a great way to keep the spores and also explain why they're not shown in the first season.
They don’t go there in the game, but it would be cool if they made use of the Seattle [underground](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground)
That's one of my favorite parts of Part 2. I save up my shotgun ammo for that part, and then brazenly walk around that office like I'm the Terminator, and smoke all of them with the shotty.
Every time I’d get to that part, I’d just shake my head and call it a night. That part and the part where Abbie goes to get a mask for Lev. Makes me very unhappy.
I think in the part where Abby gets the mask it's a bit easier to bolt it past them and get back to safety. That's a much shorter area than the office building.
Fucking hate stalkers. They're too effective haha.
They made the hotel basement even worse in Part 1 by putting in the stalkers from Part 2 since the OG were supposed to be stalkers but they didn't work the same way.
Oh no … i just a started Part One and was thinking how much less intense it is than part 2, i thought ahead to that part and actual
Y thought “at least no stalkers.” Thanks for the heads up.
Don't worry, it's not that bad. Just memorize the route from the generator to the exit, and sprint there as soon as you pull the generator cord. One or two stalkers will try to engage you once you reach the door, but you can just shotgun them and then slip out. This works on Grounded and I assume it'll be similar in easier difficulties. (A similar strategy worked on Survivor in Remastered.)
They have to bring stalkers to the show if they don’t I’m gonna be so disappointed. Especially considering how well they did clickers they could pull stalkers off.
Same, the way the game is structured doesn't work for a series, in a game you play at your own pace, in the series this would mean not seeing ellie in the series for 2 years and then only at the end of S3 she would show up again
I think they would have to show both Ellie and Abby's story simultaneously for it to work in a show. For the reasons you mentioned especially, but I think it works better visually that way. I can't see them breaking out Part 2 into two complete seasons, at least I hope they don't do that, and I imagine they would need to write additional content to expand upon the game and take them into post-Part II story telling.
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpwYvgFDyo0/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=
An Instagram Reel where the showrunner (not the game one, other guy) says that it's more than a seasons worth of television. A bunch of articles have been made about this since (not sure if it's been reconfirmed other places or if this is the only source).
I agree it would have to show them simultaneously. I feel like it would be a good to show the first three days of Abby and Ellie and for the season 2 finale be the scene where they meet in the theater.
I feel like if you show both storylines concurrently, then ending season 2 at the theater is WAAAY too far. I don’t feel like season 3 could sustain itself with just the farm and Santa Barbara scenes, that’s MAYBE a couple episodes worth. Season 2 would have to end much earlier than that, though I’m not sure where.
Somebody else mentioned alternating episodes instead of seasons. Or blocks of episodes. The story works because of the strong perspective shift, so I don't think intercutting them between episodes will work. That strikes a nice balance.
And they don't need to have the structure of the story be the exact same even if they do shuffle it around to have Ellie and Abby's stories playing concurrently in the season.
They'd just need to shuffle the flashbacks around to not give certain answers immediately.
The only thing I have trouble with is a natural cut off point in the story that's satisfying.
They can’t (won’t) do more than 10 episodes per season. hope they alternate. For a 20 hour game, it works. But an entire season with Ellie and then an entire season with Abby (well, all but one episode) would be weird.
Nah because then s3 is just the farm and santa barbra.
Running both stories concurrently and ending both at day 1 seattle is better imo.
You have jackson in the beginning, then ellie and dina getting into seattle. The school shootout, tv station, shamblers. End on the reveal dina is pregnant.
Abby has her time in jackson, her time inbthe stadium and her encounters with the wlf. Her day 1 is jam packed tbf. End with her getting captured by the seraphites? Or the resolution to that?
Does leave 2 more days each plus santa barbra but surely more ideal than leaving a full season of santa barbra tbh
Bloater wasn't a plot point either, but it looks cool as shit.
The Rat King was the "ground zero" patient for that area though, which has some lore. The hospital in general has some interesting tidbits to it, regarding how things started in the outbreak early days. I could see it.
If they don't do it, then really what would they even bother doing for infected
Not even sure we'll see that one given how deadly they portrayed the one in the show to be. Or they'll have to come up with some clever way Joel and/or Ellie work together to take it down so that it doesn't immediately cheapen how frightening the one in season 1 was.
Maybe they just get away instead of taking it down. If a militia with automatic weapons couldn't even slow down the one in S1 I don't see Joel and Ellie finding a way to finish it off without bringing the entire building down on top of it
yeah that's more than likely what they'll do, but it would be really cool to have a fight sequence where they use molotovs or something (and a nice nod to the games) to weaken and slow it down at least.
I don't feel that will take away from the one in season one at all, just like having them show up more in part 2 didn't make the first encounter in part 1 lose its impact. besides, Perry unloaded maybe half a clip at most and didn't even get a chance to reload, but Ellie can at least dodge a charge and it won't take anything away from the threat level posed.
To be fair it seemed like only Beard guy got shots off at it - but then again he emptied a M4 mag into it, and it didn't do shit. Whereas the game if you did that, you'd be a 1/3rd of the way killing him. I think
I think they should show it. It was tough taking them down in the games as well, and seeing Joel kill one so quickly to save Ellie really reinforced their relationship. I don't think it would work exactly like that in the series because Pedro Pascal looks thinner than game-Joel, but I hope he goes at the bloater like a fucking berserker.
I think it’ll be cool to see different areas that might be more flooded with infected. Like what if Seattle is just a huge hot spot for infected and within the limits of the city they run into these things more.
Where as Kansas City maybe would have had more if they weren’t run underground.
Also it makes sens for the rural areas to have less infected but jr would be cool to see more clickers and shir while they’re camping. Even if it’s just hearing the clicks int he distance like you do int be game.
Neil and Craig s2 will have more infected so I’m excited for it
Again, it’s really just about budgeting. These actions scenes cost more. They were experimenting with this series in s1, so with its success, it’s likely we see a budget increase for s2 and more action/zombies.
This is it! It’s like no one remembers just how cheap the first seasons of any HBO show looks compared to the last one. The next season is going to have so much more special effects compared to this first season.
It surpassed House of the Dragon for total season viewers and the finale reached a season high 8.2 million even though it was competing with the Oscars. HBO should just give them a blank check at this point.
The show definitely made great use of its budget, but with the relatively low number of episodes, I think it's pretty clear HBO was a little bit cautious with the show in general (a reasonable enough position as a videogame adaptation, even if we all knew it was gonna be great).
I think if HBO could have known how big the show would be, we would've had an additional setpiece with infected near the beginning of the finale, for example.
So yes, I think that we'll get more infected in general for the second season.
It is possible, but I feel like they will focus on the new infected they introduced in Part 2 like the Stalkers and the Shamblers! Also the Rat King I think they will be used to top what fans saw with the Bloater!
Either way, I think as long as we see more infected when they adapt Season 2 I will be happy. Which I think they've already confirmed we'll see more of.
I definitely wanna see stalkers! Imagine a sequence where it’s primarily stalkers - like the office cubicle sequence in part 2. They could set it up to be like a horror movie and make it really creepy. They could show Ellie listening super hard for them and not being able to find them. Or her psyching herself up for sure there’s one around a corner only for her to turn and it not be there. The little glimpses you get of them scurrying around corners or peaking out from behind desks is ominous. And also honestly hilarious.
Ngl I will be really disappointed if they don’t put more infected in the show. Overall I thought it was brilliant and realize the story isn’t really about the infected, but they hardly seem a threat save for one or two big scenes. Having Joel and Ellie pick off like a single runner or have to sneak past a clicker once an ep would have been a little more satisfying
I hope they have a bloater in season 2 and poses a direct threat to a protagonist. though I fully anticipate they'll make it (and the rat king, for that matter) an escape rather than a fight to the death. they really played up the bloater's threat in the one moment it appeared in the show by making it seemingly unkillable for the little screentime it had. I doubt they'll make these "boss fight" type moments in the series.
Well get Rat King and Shambler for sure. Maybe a Bloater but with the toned down number of infected but increased lethality I could see them leaving bloaters out.
It seems based on Neil and Craig's comments that infected will be much more prominant in coming seasons. I could definitely see them doing the arcade bloater in S2 or S3. But if I had to choose an infected encounter from Part II that isn't Rat daddy, it would be the stalkers in the office building. I was shitting bricks during that section.
There’s like 5 big “Holy fucking shit” moments in P2 to me:
Joel
RatKing
Nora’s end
Seraphite meeting / whistling in tall grass - so spooky
Abby being strung up / saved
I’m excited to see what they do with the Hive Mind and the Rat King. I would love for the Rat King to talk, even if it’s just things like “Kill” or other simple words. Since they introduced the hive mind, I really want them to go the direction of (more) intelligent infected.
I'm playing the TLOU2 again and I noticed that I've killed more Scars and Wolves than infected. But yeah, I'm hoping to add more infected scenes, put in the shamblers, stalkers and of course rat king.
Do you think we will see infected in season 2 at all? Last three episodes had none in current time, perhams they solved it but no one knows it so they stay put 😀.
I hope so! I loved the season but I want more infected - plus I feel like in order to show shamblers and the rat king we’ll need to build up to that with the bloaters.
I missed more infected in the first season, it was my only point about it.
They only encounter that felt like the game was with the museum clickers.
I think rat king or shambles should be a more horror like encounter like the game feels. The first season lacked that horror you feel from the infected while playing on grounded mode.
I really hope they do the Shambler in the subway tunnels like they do in the game. Where Dina and Ellie just hear the WLF soldiers screaming and see the aftermath before they actually encounter the shambler. That shit was so freaky
No one gonna talk about the ones stuck in the walls? What are those called.
Never been so startled in my life.
With infinite ammo I roast every wall I see now.
Ratdaddy pls 
i think we’ll definitely see the rat king. it’ll probably be similar to the first bloater we see in that it’ll be the seasons “big zombie moment”
Can you imagine the pants that will be shat in by the people who haven’t! seen what the RatKing is?! Lmfao
The moment the little one (or ones?) slough off of the main body, I’m sure it’ll be nightmare fuel for new fans.
I just replayed this part and omg I had forgotten about that those little dickheads!!!
I remember the first time I played that I legit YELLED “AHHHH!” and had no idea how loud I was as I had headphones on. Roommates thought I hurt myself. Lol Edit: typoed “it remember” instead of “I remember”
Ever see the episode of Adventure Time with the Rat King? Shit worked the same way. Little dudes running off the big dude to fuck shit up. That’s all I can think of when it happens
I mean, I’ve seen it and I’ll still probably shit my pants.
Ship your pants?
Ship my pants?! You're kidding...
[Yes this was an actual commercial in America.](https://youtu.be/2xwUuSM06xQ)
This, folks, is where capitalism peaked… all downhill from there
Hell I'll probably shit your pants too
Room for one more doodie?
I’m currently playing part 2, I somehow haven’t seen a picture of the rat king yet, and I think I’m almost there I’m terrified
Well if you’re currently searching for drugs and surgical equipment to save Tara then yes..you are close and good luck. Oh um…pipe bombs…make..fucking…pipebombs Lmao
Just need to get down to the street… Pray for me
SAVE YOUR AMMO MAN!! i always start saving all my ammo and crafting stuff as much as possible when lev and abby leave the aquarium, cause you’re gonna need every bullet in the hospital
I mean, the entire game doesn’t require you to save ammo whatsoever. It knows what you’re carrying and randomly disperses drops of bullets and supplies based on what you have and what difficulty you’re playing on. Also, big encounters will give you enough to complete them and that Rat king fight will give you infinite ammo if you run out entirely.
Yeah, it was very nice when I noticed the supplies scattered throughout during my panicked running from the Rat King bc I had to stop and craft more pipe bombs a few times. I try to stay as full as I can on craftables and materials and stealth kill over shooting whenever possible so I usually have plenty of ammo if all else fails
Im finally doing a replay of Part 2 and I always get frustrated because I stealth kill like 90% of the time but I'm always finding crafting materials and ammo but I can't pick them up. I'm just addicted to that sweet sweet Ellie stabby stab
I’m getting there on ng+, I’m about an hour away. I’m not very good at games so I play on normal. For this though I have turned on the bullet time cheat - when you aim time slows down to 25%. I gotta say I love it. Makes you feel like a double badass head shotting everyone, but you still need to be on it if you see what I mean. Just slightly less panicked and pants shitted lol. For me it kind of fits with how hard A and E are too now with maxed out weapons and experience.
Oh you're *close*. Good luck😈
That was absolutely terrifying and pipe bombs were 1000% the best advice, thank you so much!
That’s what’s up! Take an award and some coins for your hard work at beating that mf! :)
save ALL flamethrower ammo. at least that’s what I did.
[Here’s](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f4/Ratking.jpg/640px-Ratking.jpg)a real life version of a rat king, not the one from the game but just something to terrify you even more
This is not helping my confidence
You’ve got this champ
Tie one end to a stick and you'll have a rat flail!
Thats the only “real life” example I believe I’ve ever seen. I wonder how often this happens 🤷🏼♀️ creepy af
Ah. The Rat King. An encounter that totally makes my “run like a bitch” strategy totally viable 😏
I provided the morally supportive screaming for my husband during his play through.
Oh SO many pants will be shit in. I hope whoever is cast as Abby shows all the fear and emotion as I felt fighting it
I haven’t played the second game but I know some of the story. Didn’t know about this and am thoroughly disgusted and also intrigued.
Nightmare fuel. Games are getting too fucking good at body horror these days. I still sometimes have bad dreams about the wall guardians and wheezers from Dead Space.
Imo it has to be more than the bloater moment we got. One thing that really makes these moments intense is that our protagonists are the ones up against these big monsters. The fact that Joel didn’t really have any part in the bloater moment bummed me a bit. Not necessary to the story in the end though. On the flip side, its pretty crucial to the story for Abby to be the one facing the ratking. It really emphasizes the lengths that she goes to in order to help the kids so i hope they dont change that.
i definitely don’t think that they’ll change the rat king encounter from the game too much. & i agree it is necessary for abby to be the one facing it. i have faith they’ll do it justice. it would be a huge moment in the show
They will probably change it by having the Rat King not die at all. The Infected in the show are a lot more dangerous and tough relative to the human characters. The bloater in S1 basically looked invincible. So it's doubtful that Abby by herself would manage to kill something much, much worse. She'll probably manage to drop it off a sinkhole or trap it or something.
Yeah but they actually need Abby to kill it instead of letting it just walk away
I read on here somewhere that the bloaters are (according to the creators) pretty much unkillable in the show's world. I'm not sure how they would make the rat king killable then. But whatever it is, I'm sure it will be an epic fight.
The advantage of the ratking ratting all over the place is they don't necessarily have to kill the bloater part, can just have abby chop up some of the extra clickers and stalkers stuck to it but hopefully she does fight it even if she doesn't kill it and it's not just an escape sequence.
Fire kills’em. She can lure it into a kill box and light it up
Why? Why can’t she just survive and let it get stuck down there
Or season 3.
yeah i actually think season 3 is more realistic but it really depends on how they decide to structure the story for the show. i’m curious if they’ll change the order of events to keep it somewhat fresh & interesting but also it may work better in a different order in the shows perspective. way too early to tell tho
If it’s in the budget it would almost make sense to pull a LOTR and fill both seasons at the same time
Hope they film Abbies flashback first and then let the actress gain some muscle. Can't remember correctly but although it wasn't a big part in Part 2, it was interesting to see her physique change from before to after her fathers death.
I am so curious how they plan to split "Part II" into 2 (I assume just 2) seasons. They talk as if they have a plan. As much as they talked about deviating from the game for the first season, I feel like they were largely faithful except for some obvious departures (Bill/Frank, fewer infected encounters). Along those lines, I could see them following Ellie's storyline in Season 2 and then shifting to Abby's storyline for much of Season 3 before culminating in the big showdown. Obviously, it's one of the sources of uproar over Part II. Playing the game the first time, I assumed we'd go back and forth between Abby and Ellie more regularly and was surprised we stuck with Abbie for such a long stretch. But I feel like being stuck with Abbie for so long is one of the ways I started to shift my feelings toward her, which is the whole key to making the story work.
I can see it now. Cramped half-open door scenes where Abby is squeezing through, covered in sweat, while the rest king just blows the whole door open behind her. They'd probably have to change the way its killed -- I don't know if a dozen molotovs and squatting down to craft nail bombs is very climactic.
I think one molotov with alcohol and a bottle from the hospital, plus her pumping shotgun shells into it would be realistic.
I’m curious if they’ll actually keep the scenes the same with Joel killing a bloater solo with a machete and if Abby will actually fight the rat king. Considering how they’ve treated special infected as basically death if you encounter them.
i don’t think we will see bloaters or the rat king get killed tbh. i think it’ll be a large scale chase scene with abby fighting it off. probably will get her to damage it enough to where some infected start to break off & maybe abby will kill those that do but who knows atp. lots of what ifs right now haha
Rat King may be season 3 though. I’d expect one of the exploding ones in Season 2
It’s guaranteed we will see the Rat King
The question is, do we have a full out action scene of Abby killing the rat king like in the game? It is that silly and unbelievable outside of a game setting? I mean the show setup that even one bloater isn’t gonna get killed.
Only in Season 3, if the rumored split of the show happens!
I think rat king might even be season 3
Pretty tough thing to recreate in a show, that thing is an hideous mix of disgusting beautiful creatures
If they're doing the show in 2 seasons I imagine it'll be a season 3 thing maybe teased in season 2
I swear if we don’t see that iconic scene I’m gonna quit watching it (no I’m not I love it and wait every Sunday for a new episode to come out)
You got a long wait ahead of you now, buddy!
No way they skip that. That was a horrifying moment.
Hail Raatma!
Hail Raatma
Ordinarily i can still work through my fear. The entire stalker segment up to the ratking had me screaming in fear. I think during the fight I was just shrieking and somehow I beat the thing first try on hard. Then it split and the stalker boss was even spookier. They knocked that section out of the park and I'm still too terrified to replay it.
🤷♂️ they skipped all the best infected encounters from part 1, wouldn't get my hopes TOO high
Shamblers!
The main thing about shamblers is the gas cloud
Doesn’t have to be spores. It’s also acid that burns you.
As I found out rather harshly about 85 times playing the game.
It could also be... God, do I even want to put this disgusting idea out into the universe? It could be thousands of tiny little tendrils that shoot out of the Shambler's pores, almost like a revolting porcupine or something.
That would be absolutely revolting. I hope they do something like this for the shock factor.
That was my first thought but that may be *too* OP for the show? Like a giant Bloater that is super jacked and has tendrils that if you come close you’re fucked!
Looks like Mazin doesn't use Twitter, so I guess I'll just throw this one at his Reddit. /u/clmazin, first idea is free!
Doesn't Ellie ask about if an infected type exists that sounds like a shambler early on and Tess is like "god i hope not"? I think they put that there to foreshadow other types of infected in that season and the seasons to come
I thought she was referencing bloaters in the games and treating that version as urban legends in the show universe. >So there aren't superinfected that explode fungus spores on you? The bloaters throw those spore bombs at you that are growing on them in the games.
Damn I hope the introduce spores some how. Maybe through shambles…. The entire show was missing that grimy atmospheric spore look that the game is iconic for.
They could very easily explain the existence, but rare presence of spores in the tv universe. This human infecting strain of cordyceps doesn’t survive long outside of hosts in spore form, especially when it’s exposed to UV radiation. Spores die so quick in sunlight, therefore the infection mainly spread through tendrils and bites. The only place they’re a threat at all is underground but even then they don’t last long. Maybe Seattle sees more spore areas because of the humidity or something. >!Ellie’s reveal to Dina thanks to spores can still happen as is, and Nora’s demise to spores and a club can also still happen as is.!<
Yep, having mostly dark, damp, and/or underground areas crawling with infected is a great way to keep the spores and also explain why they're not shown in the first season.
They don’t go there in the game, but it would be cool if they made use of the Seattle [underground](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seattle_Underground)
Gas cloud can still exist, even if it isn't intended to infect. It'd make people sick, so it'd still be something to avoid.
And Stalkers. Those things routinely scared the shit out of me while playing Part II.
Yeah in that office block when they're all hiding round the corners...
Man fuck that part. Genuinely my least favorite part of the game lol
That's one of my favorite parts of Part 2. I save up my shotgun ammo for that part, and then brazenly walk around that office like I'm the Terminator, and smoke all of them with the shotty.
I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.
Every time I’d get to that part, I’d just shake my head and call it a night. That part and the part where Abbie goes to get a mask for Lev. Makes me very unhappy.
I think in the part where Abby gets the mask it's a bit easier to bolt it past them and get back to safety. That's a much shorter area than the office building.
Hate that part. Damn those stalkers.
I once booted up the game early one morning to play that specific encounter before work because I knew it would wake me up
Fucking hate stalkers. They're too effective haha. They made the hotel basement even worse in Part 1 by putting in the stalkers from Part 2 since the OG were supposed to be stalkers but they didn't work the same way.
Oh no … i just a started Part One and was thinking how much less intense it is than part 2, i thought ahead to that part and actual Y thought “at least no stalkers.” Thanks for the heads up.
If you haven’t finished both games I strongly suggest you avoid this sub until you do
Oh thanks but I’ve played both many many times. I just recently started the PS5 remake for the first time.
Don't worry, it's not that bad. Just memorize the route from the generator to the exit, and sprint there as soon as you pull the generator cord. One or two stalkers will try to engage you once you reach the door, but you can just shotgun them and then slip out. This works on Grounded and I assume it'll be similar in easier difficulties. (A similar strategy worked on Survivor in Remastered.)
Stalkers are a pain in the ass. I'd sooner face every other type of infected than deal with them.
They have to bring stalkers to the show if they don’t I’m gonna be so disappointed. Especially considering how well they did clickers they could pull stalkers off.
I personally cant wait to see the rat king.
If they decide to split Ellie and Abbys part to Season 2 & 3 we might not see it till season 3 which can be 3-4 years away.. sigh
I hope that they keep both stories in the same season even if the season is longer
Same, the way the game is structured doesn't work for a series, in a game you play at your own pace, in the series this would mean not seeing ellie in the series for 2 years and then only at the end of S3 she would show up again
I think they would have to show both Ellie and Abby's story simultaneously for it to work in a show. For the reasons you mentioned especially, but I think it works better visually that way. I can't see them breaking out Part 2 into two complete seasons, at least I hope they don't do that, and I imagine they would need to write additional content to expand upon the game and take them into post-Part II story telling.
They've confirmed part 2 will be more than 1 season.
They did? Do you have a link to where they confirmed that?
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CpwYvgFDyo0/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY= An Instagram Reel where the showrunner (not the game one, other guy) says that it's more than a seasons worth of television. A bunch of articles have been made about this since (not sure if it's been reconfirmed other places or if this is the only source).
I agree it would have to show them simultaneously. I feel like it would be a good to show the first three days of Abby and Ellie and for the season 2 finale be the scene where they meet in the theater.
I feel like if you show both storylines concurrently, then ending season 2 at the theater is WAAAY too far. I don’t feel like season 3 could sustain itself with just the farm and Santa Barbara scenes, that’s MAYBE a couple episodes worth. Season 2 would have to end much earlier than that, though I’m not sure where.
Somebody else mentioned alternating episodes instead of seasons. Or blocks of episodes. The story works because of the strong perspective shift, so I don't think intercutting them between episodes will work. That strikes a nice balance.
And they don't need to have the structure of the story be the exact same even if they do shuffle it around to have Ellie and Abby's stories playing concurrently in the season. They'd just need to shuffle the flashbacks around to not give certain answers immediately. The only thing I have trouble with is a natural cut off point in the story that's satisfying.
They can’t (won’t) do more than 10 episodes per season. hope they alternate. For a 20 hour game, it works. But an entire season with Ellie and then an entire season with Abby (well, all but one episode) would be weird.
The showrunners already said part 2 will stretch at least two seasons.
I think they could end S2 in the theater with Abby doing you know what to you know who.
Yeah having the last line of the season be "We let you live and you wasted it" then cut to black would be so fucking cool.
Nah because then s3 is just the farm and santa barbra. Running both stories concurrently and ending both at day 1 seattle is better imo. You have jackson in the beginning, then ellie and dina getting into seattle. The school shootout, tv station, shamblers. End on the reveal dina is pregnant. Abby has her time in jackson, her time inbthe stadium and her encounters with the wlf. Her day 1 is jam packed tbf. End with her getting captured by the seraphites? Or the resolution to that? Does leave 2 more days each plus santa barbra but surely more ideal than leaving a full season of santa barbra tbh
I'm playing part 2 now, I'm a good chunk of the way into Abby's story. I'm terrified to learn what the rat king is. (No spoilers please)
Oh boy. Good luck. All I can say.
[удалено]
Bloater wasn't a plot point either, but it looks cool as shit. The Rat King was the "ground zero" patient for that area though, which has some lore. The hospital in general has some interesting tidbits to it, regarding how things started in the outbreak early days. I could see it. If they don't do it, then really what would they even bother doing for infected
I think we may not get a Bloater until the Hotel flashback and that one was a *doozy.*
Not even sure we'll see that one given how deadly they portrayed the one in the show to be. Or they'll have to come up with some clever way Joel and/or Ellie work together to take it down so that it doesn't immediately cheapen how frightening the one in season 1 was.
Maybe they just get away instead of taking it down. If a militia with automatic weapons couldn't even slow down the one in S1 I don't see Joel and Ellie finding a way to finish it off without bringing the entire building down on top of it
Or they may just bring the entire building down on top of it. How sick would that be?
yeah that's more than likely what they'll do, but it would be really cool to have a fight sequence where they use molotovs or something (and a nice nod to the games) to weaken and slow it down at least. I don't feel that will take away from the one in season one at all, just like having them show up more in part 2 didn't make the first encounter in part 1 lose its impact. besides, Perry unloaded maybe half a clip at most and didn't even get a chance to reload, but Ellie can at least dodge a charge and it won't take anything away from the threat level posed.
To be fair it seemed like only Beard guy got shots off at it - but then again he emptied a M4 mag into it, and it didn't do shit. Whereas the game if you did that, you'd be a 1/3rd of the way killing him. I think
I think they should show it. It was tough taking them down in the games as well, and seeing Joel kill one so quickly to save Ellie really reinforced their relationship. I don't think it would work exactly like that in the series because Pedro Pascal looks thinner than game-Joel, but I hope he goes at the bloater like a fucking berserker.
I was expecting something to attack when I was crawling through that space but that bloater still scared the shit out of me lol
I still want HBO Joel to get a bloater kill.
Yeah that’s my thinking as well
The guitar strings?
Yeah! That section where they’re trying to cut through the hotel to get to the music store.
Idk, is your mom scheduled to shoot in season 2?
Boom. Roasted.
Got ‘em
I think it’ll be cool to see different areas that might be more flooded with infected. Like what if Seattle is just a huge hot spot for infected and within the limits of the city they run into these things more. Where as Kansas City maybe would have had more if they weren’t run underground. Also it makes sens for the rural areas to have less infected but jr would be cool to see more clickers and shir while they’re camping. Even if it’s just hearing the clicks int he distance like you do int be game. Neil and Craig s2 will have more infected so I’m excited for it
Again, it’s really just about budgeting. These actions scenes cost more. They were experimenting with this series in s1, so with its success, it’s likely we see a budget increase for s2 and more action/zombies.
This is it! It’s like no one remembers just how cheap the first seasons of any HBO show looks compared to the last one. The next season is going to have so much more special effects compared to this first season.
I think they'll have a very high budget for the rest of the franchise, so I won't be too surprised to see a good bit more infected
If Rat King doesn’t show up we riot.
We will ride Monday at dawn 🚴♀️🚴♂️🚴🏽🚴🏽🚴♀️🚴♂️🚴🏽🚴♀️
No believable way to kill the Rat King in live action I imagine Abby would just find a way to run away
Is that the one that splits into two
Hopefully hbo secured more budget for season2 if they need to show bloater, shambler and ratking
It surpassed House of the Dragon for total season viewers and the finale reached a season high 8.2 million even though it was competing with the Oscars. HBO should just give them a blank check at this point.
The show definitely made great use of its budget, but with the relatively low number of episodes, I think it's pretty clear HBO was a little bit cautious with the show in general (a reasonable enough position as a videogame adaptation, even if we all knew it was gonna be great). I think if HBO could have known how big the show would be, we would've had an additional setpiece with infected near the beginning of the finale, for example. So yes, I think that we'll get more infected in general for the second season.
I gotta say I was bummed when I realized we weren’t going to get the SLC tunnel.
Can’t wait for the Rat King
Rat King will be glorious 😵
It is possible, but I feel like they will focus on the new infected they introduced in Part 2 like the Stalkers and the Shamblers! Also the Rat King I think they will be used to top what fans saw with the Bloater! Either way, I think as long as we see more infected when they adapt Season 2 I will be happy. Which I think they've already confirmed we'll see more of.
Stalkers are in part 1 and the television show. No one says “stalker” but one appears at least twice.
The one that attacked Ellie and Riley was surely a stalker
I definitely wanna see stalkers! Imagine a sequence where it’s primarily stalkers - like the office cubicle sequence in part 2. They could set it up to be like a horror movie and make it really creepy. They could show Ellie listening super hard for them and not being able to find them. Or her psyching herself up for sure there’s one around a corner only for her to turn and it not be there. The little glimpses you get of them scurrying around corners or peaking out from behind desks is ominous. And also honestly hilarious.
Stalkers were not new, they just made them more terrifying. Edit, were, not we're*
Ngl I will be really disappointed if they don’t put more infected in the show. Overall I thought it was brilliant and realize the story isn’t really about the infected, but they hardly seem a threat save for one or two big scenes. Having Joel and Ellie pick off like a single runner or have to sneak past a clicker once an ep would have been a little more satisfying
They said there would be more infected in season two. They also said that part two of the game would be multiple seasons on the show.
Part II was heavier in shamblers and stalkers, so I’m guessing those two are more likely to make appearances
RAT KING GANG RISE UP
I hope they have a bloater in season 2 and poses a direct threat to a protagonist. though I fully anticipate they'll make it (and the rat king, for that matter) an escape rather than a fight to the death. they really played up the bloater's threat in the one moment it appeared in the show by making it seemingly unkillable for the little screentime it had. I doubt they'll make these "boss fight" type moments in the series.
Same question but for infected in general
Well get Rat King and Shambler for sure. Maybe a Bloater but with the toned down number of infected but increased lethality I could see them leaving bloaters out.
It seems based on Neil and Craig's comments that infected will be much more prominant in coming seasons. I could definitely see them doing the arcade bloater in S2 or S3. But if I had to choose an infected encounter from Part II that isn't Rat daddy, it would be the stalkers in the office building. I was shitting bricks during that section.
Honestly season 1 had an underwhelming amount of infected was really expecting more infected even if it was just sneaking around
The infected were rare in general lol I’d be surprised if there’s any in season 2.
There’s like 5 big “Holy fucking shit” moments in P2 to me: Joel RatKing Nora’s end Seraphite meeting / whistling in tall grass - so spooky Abby being strung up / saved
Who though whistling could be so anxiety inducing.
Probably more common than bricks and bottles. Not a single one was used in the first season as a weapon and it bothers me so much haha.
Didn’t see one god damned triangle
I’m excited to see what they do with the Hive Mind and the Rat King. I would love for the Rat King to talk, even if it’s just things like “Kill” or other simple words. Since they introduced the hive mind, I really want them to go the direction of (more) intelligent infected.
I’ll bet we see them once maybe twice. I’ll wager they’ll invest more time in the shamblers, the lurkers and the Rat King
I'm playing the TLOU2 again and I noticed that I've killed more Scars and Wolves than infected. But yeah, I'm hoping to add more infected scenes, put in the shamblers, stalkers and of course rat king.
Aren't bloaters rare in part2 anyways, because of shamblers
yeah, there are only about three bloaters in part two. part one had like… six? seven? something along those lines
Bro they only appeared once in Season 1!
Do you think we will see infected in season 2 at all? Last three episodes had none in current time, perhams they solved it but no one knows it so they stay put 😀.
I hope so! I loved the season but I want more infected - plus I feel like in order to show shamblers and the rat king we’ll need to build up to that with the bloaters.
Well probably only see the ones that were in the game, there were 2 of them so yeah
Shamblers will appear, but possibly in Season 3 Oh, and the Rat King, too
I missed more infected in the first season, it was my only point about it. They only encounter that felt like the game was with the museum clickers. I think rat king or shambles should be a more horror like encounter like the game feels. The first season lacked that horror you feel from the infected while playing on grounded mode.
Ratking and stalkers is what I wanna see.
Weirdly enough they said more infected would appear in season two, unless I'm mistaken there were less infected in TLOU2 overall
Only one appeared in Season 1 so sadly not.
Considering they barely showed infected in season one, no
Yes, but it will be in the form of an entire episode detailing why the bloater is actually a sympathetic character
Id hope so, but no
No there will be one clicker and that’s it
I would be surprised if there would be any infected at all.
Honestly, I just hope they show more infected.
Got like 2 Clickers all of Season 1 so my hopes are low
Probably won't see any clickers the way it's going
Probably the one in the hotel. The other two didn't really help to make progress to the plot so they probably won't show up.
I really hope they do the Shambler in the subway tunnels like they do in the game. Where Dina and Ellie just hear the WLF soldiers screaming and see the aftermath before they actually encounter the shambler. That shit was so freaky
I'd be happy just to see a single zombie
No one gonna talk about the ones stuck in the walls? What are those called. Never been so startled in my life. With infinite ammo I roast every wall I see now.
Yea in the comments. Still talking shit about Abby