In June of 2013 one of the greatest games of all time was released. This game garnered millions of fans worldwide and received critical acclaim for its narrative, gameplay mechanics, visuals, sound design, character arcs and depiction of female characters. This game was titled, The Last of Us. 

Describing the game's success is an understatement and no matter how much I commend the development team, the fans and myself will never be able to fully repay the hours upon hours spent by the programers working on this incredible achievement.

With each passing year, the game continues to accumulate countless fans and inspire hundreds of members from the LGBTQ+ community. 

To sum it up, The Last of Us will have a lasting impact on society and the gaming community for years and years to come.

Today, after seven years of development a sequel, titled The Last of Us Part II, was released. Many people, including myself were beyond hyped for this upcoming instalment. Now to call this game a complete failure is the easy way-out. I wouldn't call it that, I'd instead call it a massive disappointment. 

Now before I get into why I've created this petition, I just want to clear a few things up. This petition was not made out of hate, against either the development team or the LGBTQ+ community. I've made this petition out of frustration for some narrative choices made by the director, Neil Druckmann and my own personal love that I have for the series and it's characters. 

Now do I expect them to completely remake the game? No, I don't. The years upon years spent by the development team is nothing short of commendable. I don't want this petition to detract from the incredible work done by the developers. I've created this petition to show Sony, Naughty Dog, Playstation and Neil Druckmann why this was a massive misstep. I have got no problems with the gameplay and its mechanics. My frustration is aimed at the story, character arcs/choices and overall narrative. I won't delve into the story or these character choices because I'm sure many of you reading this already know what those are. The point is, is that the story for this game sucks! It's as simple as that. We can thank Neil Druckmann for that.

It's clear Hollywood has began to appeal to the "Subverting your expectations" trope. Game of Thrones and Star Wars have fallen to this idea. I guess we can now add The Last of Us to that list as well.

This series and the characters meant something to the world. To just blatantly throw Joel and Ellie into the wind like this, is an insult to all the players who have supported this game for years and years. 

I want this petition to show how much these characters mean to us. I want this to show how frustrated we are with how Part II has turned out.

The fans deserve something better. This is for them. 

Thank you for your time. 

Love not hate.

Fin