I Can't Believe The Last Of Us Repeated A Pedro Pascal Twist 11 Years After HBO First Did It

I can't believe that The Last of Us repeated a Pedro Pascal character twist 11 years after another popular HBO TV series did it first. During The Last of Us

season 2, episode 2, the series delivered a major blow by killing off Pascal character, Joel, in a shocking fashion. Following the end of The Last of Us season 1, a group of former Fireflies led by a girl named Abby spent five years tracking Joel down
, finally locating him in Jackson. As revealed in season 2, episode 2, Abby's father was the surgeon Joel killed to save Ellie.

In a shocking turn of events, Abby beats Joel to death with a golf club

before stabbing him in the throat, delivering the killing blow in front of a visibly upset Ellie. This shocking death of one of The Last of Us' main characters lays the groundwork for the rest of season 2, as Ellie and Dina embark on a quest to find and kill everyone from the WLF to avenge Joel's demise. However, the protagonist's fate shocked me because HBO had already done the same thing to another Pascal character in a different TV show 11 years earlier.

Joel's Death Is Another Pedro Pascal Shock After Game Of Thrones

Pascal Played Oberyn Martell In Season 4

In 2014, Pascal joined the cast of Game of Thrones season 4 as Oberyn Martell

, a prince from the desert kingdom Dorne who arrives to attend the wedding of King Joffrey. He earned the nickname "the Red Viper" for the way in which he fights with a sword, alongside rumors that he used poisoned weapons in battle. He's shown to be a charismatic figure, but is secretly seeking revenge against House Lannister for multiple people in his family they killed. It's also what makes him an initial suspect when Joffrey is poisoned.

However, he's soon cleared of these accusations, with Tyrion Lannister becoming the primary suspect in the case. However, when the primary character demands a trial by combat, Oberyn steps in to represent him. While he faces off against the Mountain, partially in an attempt to avenge his sister's death, King's Landing's warrior kills him in a brutal way,

crushing his skull apart. This was one of Game of Thrones' most shocking deaths, as Oberyn had been set up to be someone with potential importance for a long time to come.

Both death scenes are shocking because of how big a presence both characters had, making them some of Pascal's most memorable moments across his acting career.

This is reflective of how Joel dies in

The Last of Us season 2, with both Pascal characters meeting brutal fates at the hands of major villains. Both death scenes are also contrasting explorations of revenge, with Oberyn failing to get revenge against the Mountain, while Abby succeeds in avenging her father by killing Joel. Both death scenes are shocking because of how big a presence both characters had, making them some of Pascal's most memorable moments across his acting career.

Game Of Thrones Vs. The Last Of Us: Which Pascal Death Is More Shocking?

Both Deaths Were Upsetting, But One Stood Out Much More To Me

Both Oberyn and Joel's deaths were shocking moments in their respective shows, killing off characters with major screen presence. Oberyn's death was by far the goriest, and is one of the most brutal in the entire show. However, Joel was the main character of his series, making the emotional weight of his sudden, heartbreaking demise all the worse to experience.

I think Joel's death was the more shocking one, especially because he'd been the main character from the start, making me feel his death was more tragic.

Given the brutality of both Oberyn and Joel's deaths, I'm surprised HBO repeated their twist with Pascal in

The Last of Us 11 years after doing it in Game of Thrones. While both deaths were memorable for being both surprising and horrifying, Joel's death impacted me the most because of his presence as the central character in the story up until that point.

The parallels between how both of Pascal's HBO series characters died is a strong one, but a shocking repeat of history that will determine the apocalyptic series' future.

Why The Walking Dead Doesn't Have Overweight Zombies, According To Robert Kirkman

In its heyday, "The Walking Dead" had millions of viewers tuning in weekly to the show, which also means it had millions of nitpickers. Viewers would point out that the slow-moving zombies on the series would actually be pretty easy for the U.S. military to contain in real-life, as well as that the mechanics of this virus (where everyone's already infected but getting bitten still matters) don't make much sense.

Perhaps the most nitpick-y (but understandable) complaint of all is there's a curious lack of obese walkers roaming around. Georgia, where "The Walking Dead" takes place, has a higher obesity rate than the rest of the U.S., yet every walker the main characters come across has a slim physique. What's interesting is that the original comics do better when it comes to plus-sized zombie representation, so the show can't even pass the buck on this issue. Maybe that's why the comics' creator, Robert Kirkman, felt compelled to explain this apparent plot hole on the series in 2017. As he told a fan in the letter column for "The Walking Dead" #111 (via ComicBook.com):

"There are tons of fat zombies in the comic ... less so in the show, as, frankly, it's hard to ADD to big people to make them look like zombies. Keep in mind, to make those walkers look real, you have to build stuff, on top of real people ... you start adding to people my size, and well ... we start to look a bit too padded, if that makes sense."

In other words, it requires more effort to make a fat zombie feel realistic on TV than it does in comic books. Not all fans may buy this explanation, but luckily, Kirkman has also provided another potential reason for the slim walkers.

Read more: The 5 Worst Episodes Of The Twilight Zone, Ranked

Perhaps walkers are skinny because their digestive systems are a mess

A walker with its mouth hanging open in The Walking Dead - AMC

In that same letter column, Kirkman was asked about how the zombies' bodies in his story functioned, and he responded, "I've covered this before, I like to think they're always pooping ... undigested bits of flesh ... it just passed right through. Fun!"

So, basically, while the walkers' brains stay alive to help them feed, a lot of the living microbes in their stomachs and intestines are still dead, meaning their digestive system is borderline useless, and they're not absorbing most of the calories they consume. This would certainly explain why walkers in this universe, especially the ones that have been infected for a long time, almost always tend to be skinny: They're trapped in a state of constant decay.

The big exception on the "Walking Dead" TV show is the walker in season 2, which the show's heroes find in a well and appears to be bloated on account of being stuck in water for months on end. It's also worth noting that walking all day is great exercise, and the poor bloated well walker is one of the only zombies in the series who's been denied that opportunity.

The other famously fat walker in "The Walking Dead" showed up in season 3. In that case, the series' then-protagonist Rick (Andrew Lincoln) discovered them shortly after his wife Lori's (Sarah Wayne Callies) death in the preceding episode, and it's strongly implied that this walker ate Lori's entire body. It's a disturbing scene, but it's also interesting because it's rare for walkers on the series to eat people completely. (Usually they're at least splitting the meal with a fellow walker.) It seems that this season 3 walker has a different metabolism than the others. Either that or maybe all walkers would be this size if they ever had the opportunity to eat a proper meal.

Whatever the case, it's clear that being a walker is rough. Rick may have blown some fans' minds with his season 5 monologue declaring, "We are the Walking Dead," but let's be real: The walkers have earned that title through all their suffering over the years, and it's rude of Rick to try to take it away from them.

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