TJ_McWeaksauce

TJ_McWeaksauce t1_j9olfs8 wrote

>There is something ironic about a Sci-Fi magazine rejecting a new technology.

One of the themes that pops up in sci-fi a lot is being cautious about technological advancement. For example, Terminator is about AI annihilating almost all of humanity, so the message there is "We should be careful with how far we take AI."

I bet that the writers who've worked on the Terminator franchise would agree that we should be careful with AI, especially now that its usage is becoming more mainstream. (Not to mention how programs like ChatGPT are already complicating their entire profession.)

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TJ_McWeaksauce t1_j9jo1zl wrote

>I feel like Pedro Pascal has shown us what a better version of Rick is.

They're entirely different characters.

Joel from The Last of Us is a man whose humanity died at the very beginning of his world's apocalypse. He stopped trusting people and he stopped loving. For 20 years, Tess was one of the only people he had a lasting relationship with, and it was lopsided — she loved him, but he didn't love her back.

The only other important person in his life is his brother, Tommy, but Joel chased him away and made him move to the other side of the country, which is no easy feat when the country is filled with fungus zombies and raiders.

Joel has basically been dead inside for the entirety of his post-apocalypse. He's killed innocent people in order to survive, and he doesn't show remorse for it. His relationship with Ellie is his chance at redemption, and also his chance to finally be at peace with a trauma he experienced decades before.

Rick is the opposite. He didn't lose everything at the onset of his apocalypse, because his wife and son were still alive. He had something to fight for beyond survival.

Immediately after reuniting with his family, Rick took charge of the group of survivors they were with, because Rick is a natural leader. Throughout the series, he's gravitated toward being a leader — he's been the leader of multiple survivor communities, and even united multiple, separate communities into a network that traded and protected each other. This is in stark contrast to Joel, who's antisocial, distrustful, and avoids people as much as he can. Rick is almost always surrounded by people, and he kept adding to his family of survivors, whereas Joel works best alone or in a pair.

Rick's story is one of struggling to maintain one's humanity during barbaric times. Joel's story is one of regaining one's humanity during barbaric times. The characters are different, their stories are different, and the only real similarity between them is that they're both living in a post-apocalyptic world and they're both good at violence.

They're even different physically. Joel is broken both inside and out — he's not as fast or as strong as he used to be because he's getting old, and he's gone partially deaf. Does Rick have any chronic physical issues? I don't think he does.

Saying Joel is a better version of Rick is like saying pizza is a better version of salad.

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