'Reality is nothing but a collective hunch, Lily Tomlin'. We kick off this issue with the words spoken by a member of the town council after Ellie (Bella Ramsey), presented her case about the occurrence of strategically intelligent zombies she encountered during patrol.
In the same vein we hope that our mentality and feelings are in alignment towards the development of a better world? Hopefully we are in this together. Let's get right into the life lessons, subliminal messages, and social inferences this drama series has to offer.
- The Title
The first thing that struck me about this drama series two years ago was the title. I had seen the adverts and posts on social media but I didn't have access to stream it online.
The title triggered a feeling or a distant hunch of humanity on a last chance to fix things or make things right. And by last chance, I do not mean one lifetime, but I am referring to an entire cycle of existence. I remember making a comment on social media about a last opportunity for mankind to grow rightly. This was even before I became tuned to the symbolism of the mythical Prometheus and his struggle to push or raise humanity out of primitiveness and into true civilization. See our free eBooks for a better understanding of the cycles of existence.
- Meaningless Living
Bill (Nick Offerman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett) find gay love in each other during the outbreak and they live safely within a fortress, only to end up taking their own lives as they reach old age. They had no offspring and only struggled to exist and fought to stay alive.
This teaches a lesson that life becomes meaningless without love. And love can only be true if its between members of the opposite sex. Otherwise, its just an affectionate connection that can't sustain human life. Lots of people find succor or comfort in gay relationships as a way of overcoming the many complications and disappointments of trying to find love, but gay relationships can't really replace 'True Love'. Just like we have mentioned in countless reviews including 'Black Doves' and 'Honey Don't'.
- Hidden Problems Worsen
During one of their runs, Ellie fails to let Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Henry (Lamar Johnson) know that Sam (Keivonn Woodard) had been bitten. This turned out to be a costly mistake that results in the death of Sam and Henry.
In reality, sometimes in a show of solidarity or out of shame, we often hide the little problems we experience. But each time we hide our problems we give them more opportunities to grow. This especially resonates with our blogs purpose of emancipating women under bond entrapments, abuse, and humiliations. Don't you sometimes wonder how a forced spank or a woman deceived to partake in a threesome grows into an orgy or nude bond floggings in public? Don't you wonder how your BDSM toys become pain dungeons and at an extreme, snuff films. How about a woman who suffers a black eye from an abusive spouse and ultimately loses her life to him because she chooses to quietly save her marriage?
This is not to say that women don't exploit or abuse men, but women are mostly at the receiving end of such problems.
We should learn to speak out against things that go against our human consciousness. Speak out against things not only for yourself but for the sake of others who might be ignorantly bonded in pain or deprivation. Our world is better off without the discrimination and exploitation of the weak.
- We Fail
At one of the camps, the charismatic religious leader, David (Scott Shepherd), slaps a girl for interrupting his speech. He is the leader of the clan and presents himself as an unchallengeable authority. The bereaved girl falls across the floor from the impact of David's slap and no one moves a muscle in protest or rejection of this maltreatment.
In reality, the wicked are cleverly selfish and they often use indirect intimidation techniques that promote them higher than other well meaning people. Sometimes out of selfishness or fear, we fail to checkmate the wrong use of power and authority, or maybe we are just incapable of speaking against wrongs because of the imbalance in society.
Our failure to checkmate such attitudes at an early stage soon give it momentum that promotes such wrongness to an unchallengeable stage. For example, there can be four bullies in a class that pick on every other kid in turns each day, but if all the kids were to speak against them every time they tried, they would soon give up on being intimidating because they would be overpowered and outnumbered by the other kids. But each time the kids refuse to stand for their oppressed classmate, they only give the bullies another chance to continue, till the entire class become enslaved to their whims. Get it? Now extend that knowledge to society in general. To the problems of fraternities and gangs oppressing the weak, to the problems of women being humiliated and wrongly bonded to enslaving humiliation practices as sex slaves.
Every time we fail to speak up, we fail to make the world a better place.
Also be mindful of the use of bonds in such situations. For example, a person can cheat a child in the presence of other adults, and he'd bond himself to always cheat the child for the rest of his life, and no one would challenge him just like the adults that stood by watching him cheat the child. Some of us buy strawberries and it tastes sweet, while people like me only get a sour tasting pack. And just this morning my grocery delivery was incomplete because the only sweet item, which was a coffee sweetener, wasn't delivered among the package. I sincerely hope it wasn't a bond because I'm tired of the familiar faces that turn up to challenge my rights as I struggle to build my life back. It is truly weirdly special how those, who are capable, misuse bonds.
- Remember the Opportunity Cost
Joel kills members of the fireflies including a doctor while trying to save Ellie and he is brutally killed in retaliation by Abby (Kaitlyn Dever) who's father was the doctor. It was a big mistake to kill a doctor in a situation were doctors are scarce and most needed, despite his love for Ellie.
Not every heroic deed is heroism. Many times in reality, we are willing to let other people suffer while we benefit. We turn the other way just so we won't be considered incapable so that we can be given a share of the spoils. We often want to gain something without due consideration to what someone else loses or what we all lose in general because of our selfish action. Like we mentioned in our review of 'Black Crab', heroic war movies might actually be offensive to the people of the losing country.
Always remember the 'Opportunity cost' or the 'Alternative foregone'. These are common concepts in the academic field of economics.
Opportunity cost is the value of the next-best alternative you give up when you make a choice, while an alternative foregone is the value or benefit of the single best option you give up when you choose a different path.
I sincerely hope you can relate these concepts to real life choices, especially in the perspective of cheating love and supporting the sexual enslavement of women. Another example is when you overlook illegal activities in your vicinity like theft or hard drugs or sex hawking, because the entire environment soon degenerates into one you won't want your kids to grow up in. Our society and the world in general would be much more beautiful without such unnecessities.
- The Big Picture
Zombie movies are so popular that you'd sometimes wonder if there was ever a life cycle or lifetime when humanity really had such problems.
This story presents a broader view of a zombie saga from multi-faceted view points. There are groups actively searching for a cure, while others have started their own new religion. There are others who just loot and kill at will and yet others who have founded thriving communities within walls and throwing parties like they didn't have a problem in the world. Needless to say, but most of the communities or fortresses were soon breached by zombie hordes.
The entire story is a symbolic reference to the disunity of humans. Rather than working hand in hand to build, thrive, and succeed together, man often selfishly chooses to fight and compete for things which prove inadequate to the sustenance of humanity in the long run. We are all in it for us, not for the sake of any one individual or set of individuals. The human race is a perpetual journey that can only be successfully achieved in harmony.
The Last of Us is a fantasy storyline adapted from a popular video game of the same name and cleverly brought to life by amazing acting and production from the cast and crew. The scenes, the conversations, and escape sequences where all perfectly curated in a way that gives an exciting thrill.
Thank you for taking the time to read through this issue, which is quite lengthy because it is a two season review from a drama series with episodes approximately one hour long. But boy, it was binge worthy. Ciao
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