The Moral Puzzle at the Center of The Last of Us

a while back I posted a video titled was Joel a monster and there were a bunch of comments calling me a butthead instead of just dismissing those comments I decided to take their objections seriously and re-examine Joel's character Arc in hindsight I do think my analysis was pretty simplistic and I'm less certain of my former Judgment of its character so here's a much longer video with a much much more detailed analysis of Joel's Journey as well as a discussion of what the writer's intentions were how they expected us the audience to view Joel in the choice he makes at the end of the game I think the overarching theme of The Last of Us is loneliness every single character in the game has to deal with loneliness at some point during the story some of those characters like Ellie fear loneliness run from it and seek companionship but the fascinating thing about the game's story is how many characters actively choose in pursue loneliness like Joel Tess and Bill what's also fascinating is how many examples there are in the game of the dangers of companionship how many characters we see get hurt specifically because they seek companionship the world of The Last of Us is a very dangerous one obviously it's physically dangerous there's something new trying to kill our characters every time they round a corner but a bit less obvious is how dangerous this setting is emotionally not only is everyone in this game fighting just to survive but everyone is facing emotional wounds and traumas as well often that emotional wounding comes in the form of loss having someone you care about means having someone you can lose in that hurts Joel loses his daughter then loses Tess Ellie loses Riley then loses a bunch of other people Marlene loses her comrades and arms Bill loses his partner Henry loses Sam there is so much loss in this game over the course of the story it becomes really understandable why Joel chooses to emotionally close himself off from everyone around him and it feels even more extraordinary that Ellie keeps choosing to seek further companionship no matter how many people she loses but it's more than just loss family and friendship are vulnerabilities anytime you open up to another person anytime you share something embarrassing with a friend or a family member you are putting yourself in a vulnerable position opening yourself up to being hurt it's an old aphorism that we tend to hurt the people we love more than we will ever hurt any stranger The Last of Us is full of characters hurting each other wounding each other treating each other like crap The Last of Us isn't just a world where you could die at any moment not just a world where you can lose anyone you care about at any moment but also a world where you will get hurt by people you care about again and again in this brutal setting all of the characters have to make a choice between loneliness and companionship for example Joel has to choose has to ask himself am I going to choose to be a lonely to close myself off from the world so I don't have to be hurt again so I don't have to experience any more loss or am I going to choose family and companionship in spite of those risks because of the beauty and purpose and meaning I can find in being a father again to thoroughly explore this theme of loneliness I want to follow the game's Story from beginning to end to see how Joel's Choice changes through his journey through his relationship with Ellie in the prologue Joel is a loving father who cares deeply for his daughter in contrast to how socially and emotionally isolated he becomes later at the start of the story his character is defined by his relationship with his daughter to see this let's watch a little of his interactions with his daughter before everything goes wrong fun day at work huh still doing up it's late oh God what time is it it's way past your bedtime still today please not right now I do not have the energy for this here what's this your birthday you kept complaining about broken watch so I figured you know you like it yeah I think it's stuck it's not what no no no no oh ha ha did you get the money for this drugs I sell hardcore drugs oh good we started helping out with the mortgage then yeah you wish they have a really close relationship here his daughter is staying up late to give him a present on his birthday they're telling jokes they're very comfortable together from what tiny little bit we see here they seem to have a very healthy parent-child relationship of course Joel loses his daughter during the first day of the zombie outbreak this loss hits him really really hard I think we should watch that death scene because without it you really can't understand the emotional Journey her death sends him on oh no sir [Music] move your hands big I know baby I know this one you're gonna be okay baby stay with me [Music] come on baby please I know baby I know [Music] Sarah baby [Music] no no please please [Music] when you see the pain his character is experiencing in that moment I think you can understand why he emotionally closes himself off to everyone later in his life that pain he felt at this moment was terrible horrific he doesn't ever want to experience that pain again and the only way he can ensure he won't is if he never cares for anyone as much as he cared for his daughter again also note the pet name he uses for his daughter here baby girl because it does become important later the story jumps 20 years into the future and in the new present Joel has become a character who is emotionally and socially isolated he doesn't seem to care about anyone but himself he does have a partner though Tess I find Joel and Tess's relationship really interesting because while they work closely together and have done so for a long time and share a definite camaraderie they don't seem to be emotionally close to each other at all they're physically close but maintain an emotional distance they have a working relationship Joel being a Survivor recognizing is the benefits of having a professional partner but will not allow himself to be vulnerable with her will not share his past with her will not let her get close enough to hurt him if he loses her I'm basing a lot of this analysis on their final conversation together after he and Tess have already escorted Ellie out of the Boston quarantine zone so let's just play that clip now how are you doing Tess maybe they uh maybe they hit a map or something to tell us where they were going as far as it needs to go where was this lab of theirs she never said she only mentioned that it was someplace out west what are we doing here this is what do you know about us about me I know that you are smarter than this really guess what we're shitty people Joel it's been that way for a long time we are survivors this is our chance it is over Tess and we tried let's just go home I'm not I'm not going anywhere this is my last stop what our luck had to run out sooner or later holy [ __ ] she's infected Joel let me see I didn't mean show it to me oh Christ oops right give me your arm this was three weeks I Was Bitten an hour ago and it's already worse this is [ __ ] real Joel got to get this girl to Tommy's he used to run with this crew he'll know where to go oh no no that was your Crusade I am not doing that yes you are look there's enough here that you have to feel some sort of obligation to me so you get her to Tommy's watch the action they're here I can buy you some time but you have to run you want us to just leave you here yes there's no way I will not turn into one of those things come on make this easy for me no just go let's [ __ ] go ah really sorry I didn't I didn't mean for this get a move I'm basing my understanding of their relationship on that line what do you know about us about me we the audience we don't know anything about Tess we never learn anything about Tess about her backstory where she's from what she wants that's an intentional Choice by the writers we the audience know as much about her as Joel does we are as emotionally distant from her as Joel is you can see that distance in the way he treats her after he discovers that she's been infected the way he backs away from her and sort of scoffs the way he coldly says let me see it if he cared about her he would be a lot more concerned than this but he doesn't really care about her and that's on purpose that's to prepare himself emotionally for this exact outcome he doesn't care about her so that he doesn't have to care when something like this happens to her he doesn't care about her so he doesn't get hurt losing her the way he was hurt when he lost his daughter except that's not entirely true he can't close himself self off from her completely he's not a robot he has emotions by the simple equation of proximity and duration and respect in spite of himself he has formed an attachment to her however small you can hear it in the emotional way he says o Christ and sort of stumbles backwards in the way he resists leaving her to die by herself and wants to stay and fight with her and more than anything else in the way he honors her last wish to deliver Ellie to the fireflies the only reason Joel embarks on this journey at all is because Tess asked him to without her he would have given up right here this whole story never would have happened without her before moving on from Tess I do want to show the only other time Joel ever showed any concern for her the first time we ever see Tess she is injured at first Joel treats her coldly but he cannot help himself but try to wash her wound even at the start of the game when he is totally emotionally closed off there is still Humanity in him he can't help but care about people around him for as much much of an [ __ ] as Joel is for all his sins for all the wrong he commits in this game there is still within him a tremendous capacity to care in a different setting different circumstances Joel could have been a very good father and husband and it's easy to forget that anyway back to the story after they leave Tess Ellie tries to talk about it tries to talk about what just happened and Joel says stop stop and they do stop they never talk about tests again this is part of Joel's strategy to keep himself emotionally closed off to not only the people around him but to all the horrific things that happen around him until the end of the game he never talks about his daughter never talks about her mother never talks about tests never talks about Henry or Sam after they've died by refusing to speak about these losses he doesn't have to face them doesn't have to feel them doesn't have to allow them to hurt him this is him choosing loneliness moving forward we soon meet another character who chooses a loneliness this is Bill Bill is a curmudgeonly introverted [ __ ] who lives all alone in this empty suburb and that's how he likes it what's relevant here how it ties into this game's theme of choosing between loneliness and companionship is that bill hasn't always been alone listen to him say it in this clip seriously you got to take that kid back to where you found her I can't just take her back and send her packing let her find her own way but let me tell you a story Once Upon a Time I had somebody that I cared about partner somebody I had to look after and in this world that sort of shit's good for one thing getting you killed so you know what I did watching the [ __ ] up and I realized it's got to be just me building it it ain't like that it's [ __ ] it is just like that hey when I say to you we walk down the steps what'd I say I'm just fixing your stupid pile don't touch God damn it you keep babysitting long enough and eventually it's going to blow up your face can we please just get on with it bill is a sort of foil to Joel emotionally Joel and Bill are in very similar places at the start of the game they've both been hurt in the past and have responded to that hurt by closing themselves off by choosing loneliness in Bill we see both a reflection of Joel and also a potential vision of Joel's future if Joel stays on the path he's on this is who he may become bitter alone and lonely Bill used to have a romantic partner Frank at some point they had a falling out Frank said some mean things and then disappeared eventually we find Frank's Body he was infected and committed suicide leaving a last angry and insulting note for Bill to find see it in this clip Frank Who the hell's prank he was my partner he's the only idiot that would wear a shirt like that [Music] he's got bites here and I reckon he didn't want to turn it's like guess not well [ __ ] him Bill tries not to outwardly express any emotion at the discovery because like Joel he's closed himself off emotionally to it but he fails because again like Joel with Tess earlier he's not a robot bill is human he cannot help forming attachments cannot help Karen look at how he is on the verge of tears here I think that's one of the things the writers are trying to say even if you choose loneliness even if you think you can close yourself off so you don't have to get hurt you're gonna fail because you're human you have emotions you're gonna care and eventually It's Gonna Hurt it's better to accept that than try to run from it Bill ultimately rededicates himself to alone when his cuts off that little bit of emotion he was showing by saying well [ __ ] him something else about this section with bill bill is only able to reach that house because he has Joel's help there are too many infected on that side of town and you never be able to reach it on his own there is an opportunity here for Bill to learn about the value of companionship to make a new choice voice sometimes there are things you just can't do on your own however instead as a way of saying goodbye Bill tells Joel to get the hell out of his town and goes back to being alone again it's also notable that Joel makes a flaccid attempt to comfort bill for the loss of his partner further demonstrating that he is a character who cares after leaving bills Joel and Ellie reach Pittsburgh and all kinds of messed up stuff happens there one of which is that Joel falls down this Elevator Shaft while Ellie remains upstairs in this section of the game the players get to experience what it's like to be totally alone in this world and it's one of the scariest parts of the game it's dark terrifying and awful you're in these cramped flooded basement rooms full of zombies it's really unpleasant and thematically significant because it's the first time Joel is actually by himself up to this point he was always either with Tess or Ellie the message is clear being alone in this world sucks when he finally gets back up it's Ellie who's saves him which all sort of inexplicably acts like a jerk about it but then soon learns to trust her because after that terrifying flooded basement area it's obvious both to him and the player that this game is a lot more pleasant when he has her around fast forward to when Joel and Ellie meet Henry and Sam Henry and Sam are another obvious foil to Joel and Ellie another pair of survivors one taking care of the younger on their own trying to reach the fireflies ultimately Henry and Sam's story serves as a warning to both Joel and Ellie of what their Fates could be Henry and Sam are just like them just as capable as them flight just as hard as them and through blind chance dumb bad luck Sam gets bitten and unlike Ali he isn't immune it isn't Sam's fault it isn't anyone's fault he doesn't make any mistake he's just unlucky it's a reminder to Joel and Ellie that this could be them either of them sure Ellie can't get infected but she can get killed in any number of other brutal abrupt ways a little bad luck and all of a sudden their adventure together could end too it's also a reminder to Joel why he keeps himself emotionally walled off from others they spend a really long time with Henry and Sam go through a whole emotional Arc with them Joel starts off deeply distrustful of them then they cooperate together fight side by side save each other's lives even sort of betray each other at one point and then make up later keep journeying together learn about each other grow closer Joel starts to trust Henry lowers his guard lowers those emotional walls he's built up around himself in this next clip you can see him start to open up to Henry about his past even if it's just a teeny tiny little bit shut the hell up that series it's Tommy's birthday that's all he wanted to do is I went to Harleys and drive cross country oh man I could die happy if I could just ride one around the block what was it like it was good it was real good can you believe this guy come on man give me details describe it you know what you two deserve a little privacy remember Ellie Ellie this isn't just any regular motorcycle okay you get on that bad boy you feel that engine nothing like it oh yeah how would you know seen it in my dreams okay [Laughter] I don't think anyone from my group is gonna show up yeah worst part about it all it's playing into Sam look how comfortable Joel is here since the death of his daughter it's the closest we've ever seen him too happy and it's because he's starting to choose companionship over a loneliness starting to allow himself to be vulnerable immediately after this scene everything goes wrong Sam is infected shot by Henry and then Henry shoots himself and Joel remembers why he chose loneliness in the first place everyone he meets can be gone in a second and it's so easier to just not make friends at all never open up to anyone just like with Tess Joel refuses to discuss what happened with Henry and Sam Ellie wants to talk about it but Joel says no before I move on from this section of the game I want to talk a little bit about this sewer while trying to reach the fireflies Joel Ellie Henry and Sam go through this sewer drain there they find the remnants of a community of survivors all of whom have long since either been killed infected or fled through notes scattered around the sewer you can piece together the story of this place and that story is really relevant to our theme of loneliness versus companionship it all started with one man he discovered this sewer found that it was a safe and defensible spot he was wary of strangers didn't want to give up the safety of his Shelter by inviting strangers in eventually his need for companionship won out he invited some families with children to come live with him he formed an entire community in that sewer formed relationships fell in love then disaster struck someone left a door open some Infected got inside everything was destroyed and we can see the results for ourselves we could interpret this as another warning another possible terrible fate when someone foolishly chose companionship over loneliness in a world as brutal and unforgiving as The Last of Us however you can find one more note outside the sewer the founder of that Community escaped and he wasn't alone he'd lost almost everything but he still had someone he cared about someone he was willing to fight for we don't know anything else about their story after this final note we don't know if they met with more disaster or if they built a new life together this story of the sewer people which is totally miserable demonstrates the range of outcomes when you choose companionship sure you might get hurt you might lose everything but having someone by your side also gives you something to fight for something to live for which is of course what Joel discovers too next we meet Joel's brother Tommy who with an entire community of others is attempting to restore a power plant in Jackson Wyoming imagine for a second that loneliness and companionship exist on a spectrum with loneliness at one end of that spectrum and a companionship at the other I think Bill is an example of a character who exists at the extreme end of the loneliness side of that Spectrum someone who chooses a loneliness and refuses to choose anything else Joel is trying to stay on the loneliness side of things but is being pulled by his growing relationship with Ellie back to the companionship side I haven't talked about it much but Ellie is so full of life in this game she views the journey with a lot of light-hearted youthful bits of life like when she's trying to learn how to whistle or when she gets excited because she sees an old arcade machine or finds a comic book all these little joyful things that Joel because he's so old and bitter and cynical completely misses and because Joel is human because he can't help but to care and to form attachments he gets pulled by her back to the companionship side of the spectrum Tommy is at the opposite end of the spectrum from Bill at the extreme end of companionship Tommy is an example of how much can be accomplished when people work together he has built an entire community and they are accomplishing incredible things restoring this power plant all on their own bringing electricity to their homes Tommy represents another possible future for Joel if Joel chooses companionship this is the life he could have he could have a community a family people to care about people who care about him that kind of life isn't lost to him forever this is still a choice he could make but he's not the there yet Joel tries to pawn Ellie off on his brother so he can choose loneliness again go back to being by himself I think if Henry and Sam had survived Joel wouldn't have tried to do this wouldn't have tried to dump Ellie here before their deaths he was starting to come around starting to do better but they're abrupt and horrific deaths reminded him why he wants to be alone so he doesn't have to face that kind of loss and that's why in spite of everything they've been through together he still tries to get rid of Ellie here seeing what's happening Ellie gets pissed off and runs away and Joel chases her down and they have a very emotional confrontation in a previous video I already did a whole Deep dive into this confrontation analyzing the whole thing and what each of them are saying so I'm not going to rehash all of that here to summarize it Ellie reveals herself to be a very perceptive character she knows exactly why Joel's trying to push her away she knows it's because of the death of Sam which reminded him of the daughter he lost and she knows he doesn't want to get hurt that way again she tries to reassure him that she can't get infected like Sam did she is capable she can fend for herself she says she wants to stay with him because she feels safe with him she's lost everyone she's ever cared about and she wants to stay with Joel in response Joel acts like the biggest [ __ ] on the planet [Music] and I sure as hell ain't your dad and we are going our separate ways you can see from the way he looks at her later that he regrets what he said back there for as much of an [ __ ] as Joel is and he really does suck sometimes he also really does care in spite of himself even though he's tried to stop himself he really does care about Ellie he doesn't want to hurt her after calming down thinking it over he decides to complete the rest of the journey with her Ella get off your horse you're going back to Tommy and hang on to this fell that's all right with you oh don't make me repeat myself what are you doing your wife kind of scares me I don't want her coming after me sorry for stealing your horse come back to town let's discuss it at least my mind's all made up University Eastern Colorado how do I find this lab it's in the science building looks like a giant Mary and you can't miss it you take care of that wife here there's a place for you here you know you're good okay and it looks nobody [Music] this is Joel finally explicitly making the other choice for the first time in the game he is choosing companionship over loneliness and it's honestly a really beautiful moment no matter how many times I've played this game and even though I know where this All Leads how dark things are about to get for both these characters I can't help but sort of fall in love with them both all over again during this moment the writing and performances and animations in this game really are just Stellar even 10 years later this game is still Leaps and Bounds over almost every other video game being released today in terms of story in the next section of the game Joel is Gravely injured and Ellie has to drag him to safety then nurse him back to health this part of the game feels thematically very similar to that earlier part when Joel fell down the Elevator Shaft remember that was the first time he was alone in the game and it was dark and terrifying it was a way for players to experience what it's like to be alone in this setting but choosing loneliness looks like after Joel is injured Ellie experiences the same thing this is the first time we've seen her alone and the environment has transformed to Natural loneliness and isolation with winter the setting has become cold Bleak and lifeless the world is more dangerous than ever I find this section where Ellie is locked in this lumber mill surrounded by infected to be one of the most difficult in the game and it's not just infected but people too without Joel without a partner someone to watch her back she is prey to murderers and cannibals the writers are once again reinforcing this idea that being alone in this world sucks our characters shouldn't want that for themselves and we the audience shouldn't want it for them moving forward Ellie is captured by some cannibals and Joel sits off to save her he reaches her right as she manages to kill the Cannibal's leader and watch what happens in this scene look [Music] it's me he's trying to oh [Music] [Music] foreign notice what Joel calls her there baby girl it's the same pet name he used for his daughter in his mind by this point Ellie has become his daughter Joel's transformation from choosing loneliness to choosing companionship is now complete in these scenes that follow Joel becomes extremely open with Ellie about his past he not only answers questions but he volunteers information without any prompting because he wants to share his past with her now he doesn't just talk about positive things either he's sharing his trauma as a side note and this doesn't have anything to do with his thematic analysis that's something that always strikes me in these final scenes is that Joel is spending a lot of time talking about himself and his own past he never once asks Ellie about herself or her past there's something about it that makes me really uncomfortable it's almost as if Joel is more interested in having a daughter any daughter to unload his emotional baggage on rather than interested in Ellie specifically there's even this bit later where Ellie tells him what once we're done with all this we'll go wherever you want Joel and I'm like nah man you guys are family now you make decisions together you go where you both want to go however I'm not totally confident in this reading and I don't think there's enough interactions between them here to really say for sure I mean Joel does go looking for these comic books for her any promises to teach her how to swim when she asks so again it's not an airtight analysis of their relationship and I'm open to Alternative readings anyway moving on to the conclusion they reach the fireflies but it turns out that Ellie must be killed in order to extract her immunity to craft a vaccine and Marlene the leader of the fireflies asks Joel to just accept this so let's look at this situation from Joel's perspective he lost his daughter once we saw the tremendous pain he experienced then in response to that pain he emotionally walled himself off from all other people became a bitter and cynical and isolated person someone who chose loneliness so he could never be hurt that way again then he went on this whole Journey with Ellie where she chipped and chipped and chipped away at that wall he had built up until the wall finally broke and he chose companionship again chose to be vulnerable again accepted her as his daughter now the fireflies are demanding that he experienced that terrible pain again of losing his daughter a second time right after it finally seemed like everything was okay right after he finally LED all of his defenses drop right after he finally opened himself up to the possibility of hurt if he lost her what Joel does here is horrific there's no other word for it he murders innocent people he destroys Humanity's best chance at crafting a cure he lies to his adopted daughter about it afterwards right to her face betrays her trust in him but at the same time after the emotional Journey we've seen him go through that move from loneliness to companionship that Total Transformation like we as the audience completely understand why he's doing it some of us might even support it how can we expect him to just accept experiencing that pain again how can anyone expect Joel to not fight back Joel would have to be a true Saint to accept this and he isn't a saint he's just a father who has already experienced losing a child and can't let it happen again I very pretentiously titled this essay the Paradox of loneliness and here I will explain why but first we have to watch a little of the final scene in the game no matter what you keep finding something to fight for now I know that's not what you want to hear right now swear to me swear to me that everything that you've said about the fireflies is true [Music] I swear [Music] okay so the Paradox of loneliness is that when you're alone being alone kind of hurts like when you don't have anyone to share your life with when you're just living for yourself and not doing anything for anyone else life can feel just sort of empty and that hurts but the thing is when you're alone you can't be hurt no one is ever going to hurt you more than the people you are closest to inevitably unless you live all by yourself in a cave somewhere someone is going to hurt you someone will lie to you someone will betray you someone will try to emotionally cut you wound you tear you down that's going to hurt more than loneliness ever can because loneliness is a sort of passive background hurt whereas betrayal is an Abrupt brutal wounding hurt in this final scene Joel is betraying Ellie betraying her trust lying right to her face I made another video where I broke down in detail why this lie is so awful how it devalues her struggle and her sacrifices but I'm not going to read hash all that here instead I want to add another perspective Joel spent this whole game going through a positive emotional Journey becoming a better person becoming emotionally vulnerable becoming a father becoming caring learning to live a life that is purposeful and meaningful usually a story will reward a character for going through that kind of growth reward them with a better life the crazy thing about The Last of Us what makes it such a shocking story such a memorable story is that instead of a better life all that emotional growth he went through leads to this lie this terrible lie this betrayal of her trust Joel at the start of the game would not have told this a lie he never would have gotten emotionally close enough to Ellie to be able to tell a lie like this it's only because of his positive emotional growth that this happens Ellie is the one being hurt here Ellie is the one whose vulnerabilities being taken advantage of she trusts Joel she really believes in Him we've talked a lot about how how Joel is afraid of being hurt if he let himself get close to Ellie but now that he is close to her he's the one hurting her it's a wild and unexpected narrative reversal for comparison because it's another game I've written a lot of essays about let's look briefly at God of War 4. what if at the end of God of War 4 after Kratos had gone through all that positive emotional growth that he went through in that game learning to be a father learning to care growing closer to his son what if it had all led to him having to make a choice to either sacrifice his son or lie to his son what would Kratos have done would kratus have done anything different than what Joel does here replace Joel with any other parent in almost any other story do any of them make a different Choice than the one Joel makes here but at the same time that doesn't absolve him doesn't justify him he's still lying right to our face still forcing her to live this lie still devaluating the sacrifices she's made still betray train her it feels like there's no right choice Joel can make here he can't sacrifice Ellie can't lose another daughter he emotionally is not capable of making that choice he can't be honest with her either if he tells her the truth she might choose to sacrifice herself and then he loses her anyway but he can't lie to her not a lie this gross not a lie this self-serving the writers of the last of us have crafted this morally convoluted gordian not of a problem that really has no solution there's nothing like it in any other video game I've ever played sometimes I see people trying to untie that knot by saying oh the surgery never would have worked anyway so it doesn't even matter they say the vaccine or cure is not scientifically or realistically possible at least not under these circumstances the very simple fact that these people are ignoring is that this is a work of fiction everything here is fake in how those fake things work the rules by which this whole fake World operates is determined by the writers the writers can make up anything they want and they did the most obvious example is the infection itself obviously there is no zombie fungus in the real world it's very very Loosely based on real-life parasitic funguses but everything about it is fake how it works how it infects what kind of symptoms it generates and how it can be cured is all made up by the writers even the state of society in the last of us the way the world has descended into frankly absurd levels of violence is not determined by any factual anthropological data about how Mass groups of people would behave in this situation it's all based on decades-old post-apocalyptic narrative tropes the point is this is fake everything about how the world in this video game works from the virus itself to how every single character reacts to that virus is made up decided by the writers so getting back to Joel Ellie and the fireflies the question of whether a cure is scientifically possible in the real world is irrelevant all that matters is the writer's intention the important question is did the writers intend for the Cure to be possible did they intend for the fireflies to be able to craft an effective cure for the virus through this surgery I want to be able to say yes here because the whole moral quandary and complexity of Joel's decision depends on them being able to actually craft a cure after killing alley the problem is the writers have depicted the fireflies as being basically totally incompetent what have the fireflies accomplished I don't see any evidence of anything they've actually achieved their notes are full of medical and scientific failures why should Ellie be any different as good as the writing in this game is I think this is a flaw I think the writers messed up here if they wanted us the audience to believe that the fireflies are capable of crafting this cure that sacrificing Ellie might lead to improving the condition of humanity as a whole if that was their intention then they needed to make the fireflies appear capable of that the Raiders needed to demonstrate that the fireflies are technologically capable of crafting effective treatments for this disease because the writers failed to do so we are left with a debate without any satisfying conclusion we are left with a fan base rapidly outraged over a character death that they feel is totally unjustified because as far as they can tell with the information provided by the writers he did nothing wrong here The Last of Us tells an absolutely incredible story it is compelling it is emotional it is brutal but I can't help but feel that the writers sort of dropped the ball here at the Finish Line like did they want to tell a morally complex story about a man who had lost so much that when he finally regained something he was willing to sell out all of humanity to keep a hold of it or did they want to tell a morally simple story about an emotionally scarred father finding new meaning through protecting his newly adopted daughter from some obvious bad guys [Music] thank you

Channel: FatBrett

Views: 397,790

Keywords: The Last Of Us, Last of Us, Story, Explained, Joel, Character, Analysis, Right, Moral Puzzle

Id: 5h9uzz48v4Y

Length: 41min 18sec (2478 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 17 2023