Nobody doubts that ‘The Last of Us’ is the series of the moment, but that has not freed it from receiving a multitude of complaints from a certain sector of the public either. One is already predisposed to hear anything on that side, but the big surprise that many of his followers have received has been to discover that the seventh episode of the series It has been censored in several countries.
All affected countries
The scene that has been cut has been the moment in which Ellie (Bella Ramsey) and Riley (Storm Reid) kiss, thus creating a strange effect in said sequence. Apparently, the cut has been made by NSO+the streaming service that carries HBO in the Middle East and North Africa, so everything indicates that its decision has affected the inhabitants of the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Algeria, Bahrain, Chad, Djibouti, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Somalia, Sudan, Tunisia or Yemen.
The Last of Us’ ‘Left Behind’ episode is censored on OSN+ (MENA region), with one (pretty key) kiss scene cut out of it; and it absolutely makes no sense given ‘Long, Long Time’ ft Bill and Frank had no cuts.#TheLastOfUs pic.twitter.com/jPCcT20txE
— Mohamed Khairat (@khairatmk) February 27, 2023
If something like this is already striking in itself, things get more complicated when OSN+ did not censor any moment of the third episode, so viewers in those countries were able to see all the displays of affection between Bill (nickofferman) and Frank (Murray Bartlett), which sows doubt as to why there was no moment with gays but there was with lesbians. The alternative is that it is due to the age of the characters -not the actresses-, but I highly doubt that OSN+ will clarify anything about it.
What is clear is that the episode suffers from this loss, since Neil Druckman made it clear that it is a vital moment for Ellie’s character, as “experience first love. The first kiss. And then we snatched it away“. In OSN+ they have wanted to take it away, but completely, and, obviously, that decision has not gone down well with the fans of the series.
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