A Gentle Critique of David in HBO's The Last Of Us

     I, like basically everyone, love The Last Of Us. I loved the (remaster of the) original when I played it on my PS4 in 2015. I loved Part 2 when I binged it in the few days after it released in 2020. I've replayed each at least twice. It's no surprise that, also like an even larger "basically everyone," I loved the TV adaptation made by HBO in 2023.

    The show made some changes to the script that I generally approve of. I enjoy the changes to Henry and Sam. I enjoy the changes to Jackson, Wyoming. In general I like the show a lot. I want to clarify that so I don't come off as a nostalgia-obsessed fangirl when I complain about how they changed David. There's your premise drop for the post, by the way. I don't like Show David.

    David is a fascinating character in the game. Not only is he a selfish, cruel manipulator, hell-bent on control, and not only is he the face of the hundreds of nameless bad guys throughout the game, but he is the thematic challenge to Ellie. What Ellie represents is a glimmer of hope in an extremely dark world. She's kind, and funny, and enthusiastic: not only is she the literal cure to the virus, but she is also the cure to the deep corruption that has made normal people into monsters.

    David exists as the personification of that corruption, and his goal is, similarly to how he's controlled and corrupted his community, to destroy Ellie's better nature. He exists as a personification of how awful the world of The Last Of Us is so that Ellie's morality can be tested against the cruelty of reality. He also reflects Ellie in a lot of ways. Survival necessitates brutality, and in attempting to convince her over to his side, he points out that they aren't so different, in part because, since he completely lacks the moral center which keeps Ellie sane, he can't even tell the difference.

    However, the script for the show and game are basically identical in this section up until the very end. Can the difference between the last five minutes of the episode and the last five minutes of that section of the game really be that much? Can the show's interpretation of that short amount of time be bad enough to ruin the whole point? In my opinion, yes.

    In the game, after David corners her, he has forgone any concept of molestation or converting her to his side. His sole focus is on killing her. In the show, right up until the end, he is still attempting to rape her. This change completely re-contextualizes his motivations. When he forgoes sexual assault for murder, it illuminates the underlying desire for control. When he has her captured and thinks he can convert her to his side, he's in his element, and when she breaks his finger and makes it clear it won't work, his attempt at murder is him trying to regain control over the situation and over her.

    It's clear, then, that his motivation isn't lust, but complete, obsessive control over everything in his life. In the show, it's not even the fact that he attempts to rape rather than kill her: that would absolutely work in the same way. What ruins it is what he says during it, basically expressing sexual fantasies of being her "father" and that "the fighting is the part I like the most" and whatnot. It removes that nuance of his character, and, combined with the added backstory of him molesting the children in his community, recontextualizes his entire motivation to be solely driven by sexual perversion.

    That's not even the worst part. It ruins his character, but not the story of the episode as a whole. What does ruin the whole thing is what happens after. In the game, Joel interrupts her stabbing him. In the show, he doesn't. It's difficult to overstate how horrible that change is. The original scene works because that corruption of the world seems to almost overtake her in that moment, and it's extremely important that Joel saves her from herself in that moment. It shows that she is not some sole individual beacon of hope, but that, like in Jackson, we preserve that hope by helping and protecting each other. While David being the sole power and provider in his community led to corruption, it's the mutual dependence and bond between Joel and Ellie that keeps them on the right track. It is such an unbelievably important moment. It's always, for ten years up until today, been my all time favorite scene in any video game. When the show just lets her go ahead with it, what is it saying? That David's corruption worked? That he was right?

    I have an extremely cynical take that you're very free to disagree with me on. The 2020's have seen the height of the "pedo-hunting" craze, where people cheer at police brutality footage because the victim was a pedophile and watch vigilante Youtubers entrap random, usually severely mentally disabled people, into a Chris Hansen-esque situation. I'm sure you can tell by the tone of my writing how I feel about it. I feel like this change, be it from genuine disgust of pedophiles or a cynical attempt to appeal to the current frenzy, was made because of that zeitgeist. It was an appeal to the catharsis of watching a child molester get murdered uninterrupted. That's it. One of the most intelligent and thoughtful and emotional scenes in video game history reduced to an appeal to cathartic vigilantism.

    Ugh.