The Last of Us II is my favorite story out of any medium. There are others that are held in higher esteem by better-educated people, but my own subjectivity puts TLOU2 at the very top.

I could go on and on about it. I've been thinking about it since I played late last summer. But one central theme I've noticed, that many people have slightly touched on but maybe not quite realized, is consequence. The inciting event of the entire game is a consequence of how Joel wrapped up the first game's plot. If you watch the final cutscene from the first game, you'll see so many comments expressing the sentiment of "The story ended here".

Why? Because they can't handle the fact that Joel's actions would have consequences. Independent of if he did the "right" thing or not (I happen to disagree with what he did, but that's not the point), such a monumental choice is going to have CONSEQUENCES. And that consequence shows up to play golf with his face. The rest of the game is a series of consequences based on that, spiraling ever deeper down the rabbit hole.

But all that the Gamers saw was their self-insert, rugged, loner, asshole survivor murdered by a GURL. And they lost their minds over it. The conversation around this game, around this incredible story, is going to be poisoned for years to come because Gamers aggressively ignore subtext - both hidden and overt.