The Last of Us Season 2 is being review bombed for entirely different reasons than the game

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for The Last of Us Season Two and The Last of Us: Part II.

The Last of Us Season Two is being review bombed for very different reasons when compared to The Last of Us: Part II.

Naughty Dog took a huge risk with The Last of Us: Part II in 2020 when Joel was killed in the early stages of the game.

This completely divided fans with some thinking it was a bold but successful direction that kept it very different to the first game and others hating that Joel was killed off so soon after being such a key part of one of the best games of all time.

Even now, some gamers are still so angry about this that after studio Naughty Dog revealed its new IP Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet at The Game Awards in 2024, when the trailer was made available online it was review bombed primarily because of the studio's decision with Joel in The Last of Us: Part II.

There's a very similar pattern emerging with The Last of Us Season Two - although the series is critically acclaimed on MetaCritic and Rotten Tomatoes, fan ratings are significantly less favourable, as the game it's based on were.

One of the reasons for this is about what happens to Joel. However, there are other reasons that are being more commonly complained about - and they are just completely ridiculous.

The Last of Us Season Two is being review bombed for very different reasons to the game / Screenshot from HBO

What's now a sad reality of so-called 'anti-woke culture' can be seen in full effect across fan reviews of The Last of Us Season Two on sites such as MetaCritic and Rotten Tomatoes.

The majority of complaints focus on Ellie's developing relationship with Dina and how Ellie identifies with a number of comments saying the season is "too woke" compared to the first.

That's even though Ellie's relationship with Riley in Season One, which is the main focus of The Last of Us DLC Left Behind, is detailed. And let's not forget the best episode in Season One is of Bill and Frank.

Through The Last of Us games, Ellie identifies as a lesbian girl / woman and her relationships with other female characters are developed, such as Riley and Dina.

A huge focus of The Last of Us: Part II is about Ellie's relationship with Dina and how this changes throughout the course of its story.

What Ellie identifies as in The Last of Us Season Two is different compared to the game (evidenced by the father line at the end of Episode Four) but why does that provoke such a negative response?

Especially when The Last of Us is more about the stories between characters and how they are influenced by rare deep human connections in a violent, scary, post-apocalyptic world with each being told in such a meaningful way?

There have also been some horrible reviews about Bella Ramsey playing Ellie with abhorrent posts across social media too. Opinions of performance as the character are one thing but deplorable posts about Ramsey's appearance need to stop.

Elsewhere from indy100, a look at the five biggest differences between the TV series and game when it comes to Joel's death and how the opening scene of the TV series deviated from the game in a major way.

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