In “The Last of Us” Episode 7’s companion podcast, Neil Druckmann provided plenty of illuminating insights about the inclusion of the gruesome fighting game. He joked that “Triple Phoenix” is a very obvious rip-off of “Mortal Kombat,” which helps contextualize the history of violence in video games over time.
Druckmann also explained why he wanted to feature “Mortal Kombat 2” specifically: “How violence is used in games. And Mortal Kombat II, there was this whole conversation around it with violence in the media, and Senator Lieberman wanting to censor video games. That’s where, like, the rating system all came out. So it’s a lot of, like, really interesting political things that happened with video games with that specific game.” He then broke down how they were able to secure the rights to the original point of reference, which shares Warner Brothers with HBO, the producers of “The Last of Us” TV series.
The creator even highlighted Ellie’s “Mortal Kombat 2” poster in her bedroom, which serves as one of the many Easter eggs in the series. Druckmann concluded by underlining the core theme of the series and why the two young survivors are so drawn to it: “And these girls would have had an obsession with this particular thing because Ellie just has this, not dissimilar to me, an obsession with violent media.” This is even present and reflected in Joel (Pedro Pascal), in who Ellie finds an irreplaceable comfort, further cementing the overarching element.
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