The Last Of Us Lore Explained: The First 20 Years

hello and welcome this is push square deep dive a brand new series for the channel where we take an in-depth look at some of your favorite playstation franchises that means you can expect to see character analysis scene breakdowns and explorations of world lore for cities like ghost of fushima god of war and horizon but today's episode is all about the post-apocalyptic world of the last of us this instant classic from naughty dog exceeded the expectations many had for the then tired zombie apocalypse genre and it did so by delivering something somber and mature but more importantly something that had a considerably deep lore filling in the gaps of its world and that's what we are here to talk about today with the impending release of the ps5 remake just around the corner i thought i would take this opportunity to dig into the world that plays home to some of the most unforgettable stories now of course we can't cover everything here today and that may come in future episodes but for this video we're discussing the first 20 years of the apocalypse that's the gap between the prologue in 2013 and the main game in 2033 we're going to be answering questions like how did the virus grip america so quickly how did society fall and what was joel up to during those years we'll be looking at both part one and two for this so expect some mild spoilers for part one and light spoilers for part two with that being said my name is aaron bain and let's immerse ourselves in the world of runners clickers and blotters and our first push square deep dive before we get to the post apocalypse we have to learn how the apocalypse itself came to be the fall of man had very small beginnings the cordyceps brain infection or cbi is a very real virus in our world typically only infecting insects however here the virus makes the jump to humans but how did we move from ants to people for this part of the story we need not look further back than september 26 2013 which unbeknownst to many would be the last normal day on earth outbreak day joe's daughter sarah awakens in the early hours of september 27th and a newspaper she can find in the bathroom informs us that a fungal mold was found in tainted crops from south america and these crops had made their way into the general food supply across america while the fda carried out an investigation and many food companies had already withdrawn their products it was all too little too late if the fungal cordyceps infection began to tear its way through the human population through the campaign we discovered that there are four initial stages of the cordyceps infection and two ways to become infected runner stalker clicker and bloater are the four base stages with the cordycep fungus gradually consuming the body bursting and sprouting from the brain the last of us part 2 introduced shambles and the rat king and while the latter was an exceptional example we know it wasn't uncommon for the infected to conjoin the primary stages of runner stalker and cricker were said to take place within a year or so of the initial infection while bloaters took over a decade to form and from this we can only surmise that more stages were yet to arise as the years rolled on and the fungus found new ways to mutate the human body between these different stages the infection was spread via either bite or the inhalation of spores spores emanated from a body once cbi killed its host leaving it as a sprouting ground for fungal growth before death the host would typically find a small and enclosed spot to release its spores these areas were deadly but a functioning gas mask would protect anyone within them however one crack or leak and it was game over the initial infection spread through 60 of the world's population with those included either being infected or dead the number of fatalities and affection only grew as time went on in any desperate attempt to find a cure failed so all of that was the initial stages of the apocalypse the how of the virus and its spread but what about the fall of society what happened to the world as we know it between 2013 and 2033 well a lot of those 20 years are actually tied up in the success and failure of quarantine zones areas which were established to shield non-infected individuals from the spread of cbi from the title sequence we learned that residents were called to register with corresponding qz's amidst the chaos any semblance of government was overthrown leaving a branch of the american military in charge of these zones this force was called federer the federal disaster response agency fedra ruled its qs with an iron fist rooting out any infected and enforcing strict curfews residents were also drafted into phaedra with threat of a reduction in rations or possibly even the loss of residency if they failed to comply the boston qz where joel miller resides at the beginning of his and early story was an incredibly well-guarded zone with giant perimeter walls and a huge military presence however boston was more of the exception rather than the rule we learned in bell's town that some cities and towns got the heads up on the pandemic and were able to establish quarantine zones ahead of time mandatory evacuation evacuate to where what do you think quarantine zone see some places got a heads up before the infection showed up most didn't this meant that those that weren't warned were wildly unprepared becoming hot spots for the infection to spread some cities like austin texas where the prologue takes place had no form of quarantine and fell on outbreak day we can only assume that with the fungal molds originating from south america the southern parts of north america were hit with little warning while areas to the west and east like boston had a small amount of leeway however even those prepared still had to take desperate measures to avoid complete collapse the downtown area of boston was bombed beyond recognition and the hope of wiping out the infected we know that aggressive counters like this were taken in other cities like seattle for those that did manage to survive the initial years further problems began to establish themselves within the zones federer's authoritarian approach to ruling created a heated tension between them and their residents and as rations began to diminish order within the zones came to a breaking point riots broke out progressing to attacks and eventually the fireflies were born this militia resistance group began to rise up against federer across the us whilst also renewing hope to find a cure for cbi something that had long been given up in some cases like salt lake city the fireflies were able to overcome the military ruling and push federer out however in other areas like boston fireflies were executed and almost entirely wiped out but the sentiment of the fireflies came in many forms we know that the washington liberation front or walf formed in seattle under almost the exact same circumstances another example of this were the hunters in pittsburgh who rose up against their oppressors with the help of the fireflies yet turned on them developing their own hostile way of life becoming even worse than federer according to some and there were certainly many factions that we don't know about across america as it was around this time just a couple of years after outbreak day to any form of news whether it be written or broadcast faded away through all the fighting and revolution most of the quarantined zones fell and if they remained without the force of federer they never reached the same level of strength this meant that the remaining population of america were spread out across the country either joining groups roaming on their own or forming their own communities like tommy's town in jackson county all the while they infected further established themselves in their once great cities and what about joel we obviously saw a massive change in the character between the opening prologue and that 20-year skip to 2033 while much of his path is shrouded in mystery we do know some details in how he became the man we know in this story it's hinted that that joel may have considered suicide as we learned from his final discussion with ellie in the conclusion to part one i struggled for a long time with surviving and you no matter what you keep finding something to fight for for joel survival became that something and the ultimate goal is he and tommy navigated the early years of the outbreak joel was willing to do anything to keep him and his brother alive and that philosophy led to the two becoming hunters how did you know no what about the ambush i've been on both sides oh so uh you kill a lot of innocent people we'll take that as a yes take it however you want we all know how brutal joel was as throughout his and ellie's journey we saw him pick up on traps mercilessly interrogate and torture people and eventually massacre the majority of the fireflies just to keep ellie alive many of the attacks joel and ellie became victims to were exactly the kind of thing that joel did for the majority of those 20 years tricking robbing and murdering innocent people eventually joel and tommy traveled up to boston smuggling their way into the quarantine zone it was here that tommy finally grew tired of jove's murderous streak claiming that he never wanted to see him again it was at this time that the two had been arguing over tommy joining the firefight eventually tommy left boston for wyoming and it was years before the two reunited once more however the dark time still loomed over tommy who claimed all those years later they still got nightmares from their time on the road for all those goddamn years i took care of us took care that's what you call it i got nothing but nightmares from those years you survived because of me it wasn't worth it with tommy gone joel established himself as a smuggler within the boston qz along with his partner in crime tess the two were never romantic or at the very least were never confirmed to be but there was an undeniable yet unspoken intimacy between the two there's enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me so you get her to tommy's with their setup joel and tess were able to get by within the qz for years until they stumbled across a wounded marlene leader of the fireflies who had one big job and that's all we have for today's episode of push square deep dive of course this is a little different than our usual style of content for the channel so let me know down below if it's something you'd like to see more of in addition to that i'd love to see some of your suggestions for further bits of lore you'd love to see explained whether that be within the last of us or any other playstation exclusive anyway guys i appreciate you as always for watching like the video if you'd like to see more and subscribe to push square for more playstation video content i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Push Square

Views: 155,749

Keywords: PS5, PlayStation, the last of us lore, the last of us first 20 years, push square deep dive, the last of us explainer, the last of us lore explainer, the last of us outbreak explained, the last of us infection explained, the last of us cordyceps explained, the last of us explained, the last of us post-apocalypse explained, the last of us joel's past, the last of us lore explained, the last of us quarantine zones, the last of us infected, was joel miller a hunter, was joel a hunter

Id: CwfsnULptlY

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 04 2022