Look, ever since the Last of Us 2 leak came out, there’s been a raging debate on the premise of the story! Is it a perverted SJW fanfic? Does it attack Christianity? The truth might shock. Now I don’t know what you’d consider spoiler so if you don’t want to be accidentally spoiled, leave now. I’m not gonna actively try to spoil the Last of Us 2 of course, but I really don’t know what constitutes a spoiler for most people.
As you know, the story allegedly centers around revenge. A certain key group in the game known as the Seraphites, are the main antagonist of the Last of Us 2 and are actively been hunted by Ellie and vice versa as she plots her revenge. The main point to take from this is that the Seraphites have a hatred for the LGBT community among other things and did some bad things. Man, been vague is tougher than I thought.
Now, many who’ve seen the leak assume that the Seraphites are based on Christianity directly, so I decided to look them up to see what the official description says about them.
According to the Last of Us 2 wiki:
Members of the Seraphites practice a form of ritualistic sacrifice. They hang their sacrifices by the neck and disembowel them, believing that they are “nested with sin”. The phrase “clip their wings” also has particular significance to members of the cult, as it is used when in the presence of non-members whom they wish to harm.
All members of the Seraphites share certain characteristics, for instance, all male members have a clean-shaven face and head, while all female members wear their hair in the same braided crown style. Also, all members have “Glasgow Smile” scars on their cheeks. Regarding their attire, both men and women wear dark pants, black shoes and dark trenchcoats that feature hoods.
To me, that sounds like a cult. It’s very common in our society’s history for people to warp and distort religion for their own selfish gains and Christianity has had its own shares of twisted version of its religion. So to say that you’re not picking up the game because of this is been selective, as they’ve been plenty of games in the past that have used religion such as Christianity as their premise for their story, whether to critic it or highlight it. People who are boycotting the game likely were never gonna pick it up in the first place.
Cults have existed and it’s important to realize that and also realize that they do not represent the original version of any religion. We have had this talk all the time with terrorists claiming to be Muslim who bomb countries in the name of their “twisted version” of religion. They exist, and to ignore them would be dishonest. This a classic, “wait and see” scenario”! Play the game and see what the dev is trying to tell you. Experience the story and see what the message is all about. If you truly don’t want to buy the game then just watch a YouTube video. Let’s wait and see what they’ll say.
I’m not arguing that the story will be amazing or shit, just to not be hypocritical in your selective hating. We’ve had games critic or attack religion, and we’ll continue to see them in the future. In this case, The Last Of Us 2 is not attacking Christianity, but instead is attacking the people who manipulate peaceful religion into something blasphemous. In fact, the only reason we are having this conversation is because of how popular the game is, had it been any other game, it would’ve been small talk.
I’m glad this was brought up as I talked about how all these forced SJW stuff in the past would have a ripple effect in the future. Now, everything is been labeled “SJW” without seeing first if it actually falls under that category. It’s a mess.
Whether you believe God or not, let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
