HBO’s “The Last of Us” series had a strong start with season one. The acting was great, and the story closely followed the video game it is based on. But in season two, things started to fall apart, especially in the finale.

There are three big reasons why HBO got season two wrong, especially compared to the video game. These problems made the story less powerful and emotional, and while some changes made sense, others did not.

In the game “The Last of Us Part II,” you play as a character named Abby Anderson before she kills the previous protagonist, Joel Miller. This is one of the most important parts of the story because it makes players understand Anderson as a person before the betrayal happens. It’s shocking and painful when she kills Miller, and it makes players feel torn.

In the show, this emotional build up is missing. Anderson shows up, kills Miller, and we never get time to truly understand her before she kills him. It felt rushed and made it less meaningful.

Also, Anderson’s appearance and strength in the game are important. She is a strong, trained Washington Liberation Front (WLF) soldier who can match Ellie Williams, one of the protagonists in combat. This is a huge part of why her story works with and against Williams.

The final fight between Anderson and Williams is meant to feel like a clash between two equals. In the game, their confrontation was brutal and bloody, emphasizing their physical parity. This balance made the fight impactful, showing how much both characters have lost and how far they were willing to go.

However, with the casting change, the fight may no longer carry the same weight. Anderson’s noticeably lower muscle tone could make the scene visually unbalanced. This shift risks making the fight less believable and meaningful.

And then there is Lev. In the game, Lev is a key part of Anderson’s journey, he helps show her softer side and gives her something to fight for besides pure revenge. Lev is also a former member of the Seraphites, often called Scars, a religious cult in conflict with the WLF.

As a scar, Lev provides Anderson with an inside look at the group her people have long been demonizing. This forces Anderson, a WLF soldier, to confront her biases and question the propaganda she was raised with. Lev’s presence is crucial in reshaping Anderson’s identity and showing a push towards growth and forgiveness.

But in the show, Lev doesn’t appear in the second season at all. This weakens Anderson’s entire storyline and makes it harder to care about her path. This season did a poor job of showing both sides of the story.

Jesse is a kind and loyal friend in the game. He supports Williams and Dina (Williams Girlfriend/Jesse’s ex-Girlfriend) without question, traveling across the country to help them escape the dangers of the WLF and protect them during their mission. His death is especially emotional because he dies while trying to save them from Anderson, showing just how selfless he truly was.

In the show, they made him out to be a jerk. He yells at Dina, and cares more about the community of Jackson, Wyoming, than Williams, and seems colder than kind. This change makes it harder to feel sad when he dies.

By making him more distant and angrier, his death loses its impact. It just feels like another casualty along the way. In the game, it was a real loss that was unexpected and sudden.

He doesn’t feel like the same person from the game. It’s one thing to give a character more depth, but here, they just made him less likable. Season two really hurt his role in the overall story.

In the game, Williams is angry, broken, and filled with rage. She is willing to do anything to get revenge for Joel because he was like a father figure to after she’d lost everyone else. That deep loss is what makes her journey so dark and emotionally powerful.

She does horrible things, like torturing people for information, killing without hesitation, and putting others in danger, all in the name of revenge. She starts to lose herself in the process, and it can be hard to watch, but it makes her journey feel intense and real. However, the show’s version of Williams is softer and not as ruthless, she hesitates more before killing, shows more emotional vulnerability early on, and relies more on others for support instead of pushing them away.

Williams talks about revenge in the show but does not properly act on it. She is not as careless or dangerous as Williams is in the game. This makes her story feel less intense because there are less close calls due to her carelessness.

The edge that made her such a strong character is missing, she is still interesting, but she doesn’t have the same fire. Her pain doesn’t come across the same way it did in the game.

Even though some of the changes were bad, there were still some good changes. I liked the way the show deepened Williams and Dinas relationship. Showing Dina struggle with internalized homophobia gave her more layers, and made their scenes feel real.

I also understand why Tommy Miller (William’s uncle figure and Joel’s brother) didn’t leave first like he did in the game. In the show, with Tommy staying behind for his child, it makes sense that William and Dina sneak out at night through the wall surrounding Jackson to avoid attracting the guards’ attention.

Both seasons had strong moments, but the season two finale was disappointing. It ended on a cliffhanger that felt incomplete and not exciting.

They should have added more episodes to finish the story or at least give a real ending to this part of Williams’ journey. Right now, it feels rushed and unfinished, which didn’t leave me satisfied or excited for more, it left me frustrated.

“The Last of Us” is still one of the best video game stories ever told, as its a uniquely different story on revenge and its consequences. HBO has a chance to do it justice, but they need to fix things in the next session.