The lead (Druckmann) is Israeli and his settler understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict informs a somewhat major plot point in the game.
Before we talk about that though, the series as a whole is just heavily misanthropic which I guess is common these days for zombie-themed media. This parallels the COVID situation somewhat with how the capitalist response especially in the US was to just let people suffer and normalise the infection while attempts to curb the spread in China, Vietnam, DPRK, etc. were ironically perceived as barbaric authoritarianism. In TLoU world everyone is out to kill everyone else when the non-infected could have hypothetically just lived together like they do in the commune that Joel and Ellie end up in. But people are inherently violent and bloodthirsty so they fight and kill each other because the plot demands it.
TLoU Pt. 2 spoilers
I forget the names but there are two groups in the game. One is the one that Abby belongs to. I think it’s called Washington Liberation Front. They are in perpetual conflict another group. This group is shown to be a bit savage—they imitate animal calls to signal each other when outside and use bows and arrows primarily as opposed to guns—and are a cult fueled by a fanatical devotion to a now martyred holy figure. This conflict is inspired by the Israel-Palestine one.
In the real world, conflicts are wrought about for tangible reasons. Israel is stealing Palestinian land forcing them to mount a violent resistance. Settler liberal minds refuse to or are unable to perceive this. They attribute this conflict to reasons like religious extremism and an imagined innate Muslim opposition to Judaism or a “cycle of violence”, where humans are just shitty creatures who love to hurt other humans because of this cycle.
I don’t have much thoughts on this but that is the gist of the criticism of the game.
The lead (Druckmann) is Israeli and his settler understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict informs a somewhat major plot point in the game.
Before we talk about that though, the series as a whole is just heavily misanthropic which I guess is common these days for zombie-themed media. This parallels the COVID situation somewhat with how the capitalist response especially in the US was to just let people suffer and normalise the infection while attempts to curb the spread in China, Vietnam, DPRK, etc. were ironically perceived as barbaric authoritarianism. In TLoU world everyone is out to kill everyone else when the non-infected could have hypothetically just lived together like they do in the commune that Joel and Ellie end up in. But people are inherently violent and bloodthirsty so they fight and kill each other because the plot demands it.
TLoU Pt. 2 spoilers
I forget the names but there are two groups in the game. One is the one that Abby belongs to. I think it’s called Washington Liberation Front. They are in perpetual conflict another group. This group is shown to be a bit savage—they imitate animal calls to signal each other when outside and use bows and arrows primarily as opposed to guns—and are a cult fueled by a fanatical devotion to a now martyred holy figure. This conflict is inspired by the Israel-Palestine one.
In the real world, conflicts are wrought about for tangible reasons. Israel is stealing Palestinian land forcing them to mount a violent resistance. Settler liberal minds refuse to or are unable to perceive this. They attribute this conflict to reasons like religious extremism and an imagined innate Muslim opposition to Judaism or a “cycle of violence”, where humans are just shitty creatures who love to hurt other humans because of this cycle.
I don’t have much thoughts on this but that is the gist of the criticism of the game.