Neil Druckmann comes off as holding a massive grudge against Bruce Straley, and Amy Hemming, for what in his eyes, "censoring out his ideas". Now that both of them are no longer at ND, he's given himself free reign to do what he was denied from doing in the first game.
Also, I wonder if he got inspiration from things such as Season 8 of Game of Thrones, and the Star Wars Disney Trilogy, heck, even LOST, in terms of his heavy use of "Subverting Expectations".
It’d be of no surprise to me, but I do want to say something that may draw some negativity- I think subversion is an excellent tool. But writers in this day in age believe subversion isn’t an instrument of harmony, but of disruption. Not of bends in the rivers, but clean cuts in the damn. All shock, no tension. All speed, no impact.
There are great ways to subvert settings. My favorite is Kento Mirua’s Berserk, where the main character never gets to be happy, and the one moment he does, it is quite litterally fucked into oblivion and left a shambling corpse.
There is always a message of hope shrouded in this deep dark hell world where god and all of his men wish for your complete erasure off the face of the earth. It is a story despite being wrapped in cynicism, cold to the touch, about recovering from loss, beginning to blossom intimately, and to live in a world you thought had died. Where you can’t sleep not because monsters prowel around you and the forest is all to quiet, but because you are finally at ease. It is so hard to close your eyes, fall asleep, because you’re already living the dream.
Then when you awaken on that horrid day, your entire life is a nightmare. Existence is a chore. Everything you had fought for was lost in the blink of an eye. You are powerless, you are godless, you are the smallest David to the most powerful Goliath at the battle at the edge of time.
They tell you you can take back your life, and that you can, mocking you all the while.
While they do, with those same hands, you’ll take there’s too.
That is long played, totally perfectly gut fucking wrenching execution of not just subversion of a story. But of a genre. A generation.
That is masterclass. Druckman wishes in his wet dreams he could write that well.