While the second season of The Last of Us Taking home the Game Award for Best Adaptation, the live-action show is definitely a sore subject for fans of the game as it handles Naughty Dog’s infected drama. Although much of the show’s backlash has been noise, linking to genuine criticism of homophobia, Ellie’s original voice actor Ashley Johnson thinks the discourse around the show is no different than around the games.

Talked to the DirectJohnson lovingly describes the backlash as one filled with open love for sports. A tendency to find friction more often whenever someone’s idea for the series conflicts with what the creators plan to bring it to life. With The Last of Us‘ full deal, for better or worse, which is a huge subversion of fans’ expected, from the ending of the original game to the front half of the second gamethat doubled the feeling of throwing cold water on the fans and asking them to sit with that feeling, the adaptation of the show that runs into a similar event is basically poetry, rhyming, and Johnson can understand the disappointment from both sides.

“Sometimes that love feels really good, and sometimes it feels bad. But you know, I understand it. I understand loving something, and wanting it for what you want it to be,” he said. “We don’t act to please people on social media or avoid making them angry. We’re just doing what we think is right, and we hope people go along for the ride and enjoy it.”

While Johnson didn’t get too into the weeds on what caused the fan backlash The Last of Us season two—and honestly, who can blame him (that’s a big can of worms)—he ended his take by bandying both sides of the aisle, creators and fans, by emphasizing how difficult it is to balance love and expectations.

“It can be difficult sometimes, when you do these things, and on your side of things, you are passionate about it, and excited about it, and hopefully the two things can meet. Sometimes they don’t. The Last of Us in all forms, and I’m so happy to be a part of that telling that story.”

Johnson isn’t the only Ellie actor to express their sentiments on the fan backlash in the second season. Bella Ramsey basically saying what most people are thinking while speaking The Awardist podcast in response to a strong but vocal minority of viewers who were delighted Ellie’s relationship with Dina.

“There’s nothing I can do about it anyway. The show is gone. There’s nothing that can be changed or changed. So I’m like, there’s really no point in reading or watching anything,” Ramsey said. “People, of course, have the right to their opinions. But it doesn’t affect the show; it doesn’t affect how the show goes on or anything in any way. They’re very different things for me. So no, I’m not going to get involved.”

At io9, we somewhat critical of the second season because it doesn’t seem to trust its audience unless it puts every possible thought out of their noggins, leaving nuance and “show, don’t tell” by the wayside. In essence, the show feels like it’s practically massaging the audience’s jaws to help them digest what each character is feeling at any given moment, without letting its cast do their thing.

What’s next for HBO’s adaptation of Naughty Dog’s constantly re-released infected-killing Dad simulator, we have a third season in the wings, although it does not appear to be the co-creator of the game Neil Druckmann involved. Druckmann will instead focus on developing Naughty Dog’s upcoming anime-inspired space game, Intergalactic: The Heretical Prophet. It’s time instead solo led by showrunner Craig Mazin—someone who definitely has questionable interpretation of character amplitudes from last season. He’s also someone who’s already got his hands on another video game pie in the upcoming HBO series Baldur’s Gate 3 show—a show that the the writers of Larian Studios will not be involved (danger nervous sweat).

Regardless, the third season will focus less on Bella Ramsay’s Ellie and more on Abby by Kaitlyn Deverso prayer circles for him to continue to avoid the weird “fans” and the online harassment and death threats teased by his video game acting counterpart, Laura Bailey. What’s in store for that season is the semi-up in the air, where it ends for people who have played the game, because the whole shebang ends with a fourth season. Hopefully that way, we can all be normal about it.

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