Flash Flash Revolution - View Single Post - The Last Of Us (Ending discussion -- moral quandaries ahoy!)

sp1nzoK · 08-12-2013, 06:26 PM

On the surface Joel's decision is selfish but there are so many undertones why it makes sense - here's a couple:

-Denying the possibility to _attempt_ to get a vaccine for the masses is irrelevant to Joel because as you mentioned Ellie has essentially replaced Sarah and in Joel's words: "You keep finding something to fight for.", in his case protecting Ellie as his new spiritual daughter is what he is fighting for. Losing Ellie would mean losing his purpose in life just after finding it again.

-Even if a cure was successfully created from the sacrifice of Ellie, I wonder if humanity would be even able to distribute it and after all there are other ways to die than transforming into an infected from non-lethal bite; hunters being trigger happy looters & infected being more than capable of doing lethal bludgeoning / ripping / biting. So basically even if all humans became immune to the infection there would be no guarantees that all beings coexist happily after being survivors for so long and the way to non-hostile surviving would be through crops & livestock like Tommy & Maria have planned for their community's future. Otherwise people are mostly military supervised / "protected" / deprived of fair rations - or living on the road, hunter style. I guess the cure would work in the way that there could be no more hosts for infection and each killed infected would be one closer to extinction.

-It's been 20 years since the outbreak and Joel's character is the "has very few moral lines to cross" -archetype by design, he has seen and sees the dark side of humanity and is one with it too as a survivor. He probably hates most of humankind at this point - everyone is just trying to kill everyone at the first chance they get to survive a day longer, he feels humankind is not worthy of a cure.

Some repetition in my thoughts but they should make some fair points for why the ending is pretty sound if you were in Joel's shoes as a 20 years and going survivor who has seen most all or in Ellie's shoes (forced by Joel's decision but still as a person who was never asked to decide if she wanted to die for the _chance_ to _possibly_ aid the current "humanity" to get rid of one way to die among many) fearing to be alone.

08-12-2013, 06:26 PM	#2
sp1nzoK FFR Player Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Finland Age: 36 Posts: 580	Re: The Last Of Us (Ending discussion -- moral quandaries ahoy!) On the surface Joel's decision is selfish but there are so many undertones why it makes sense - here's a couple: -Denying the possibility to _attempt_ to get a vaccine for the masses is irrelevant to Joel because as you mentioned Ellie has essentially replaced Sarah and in Joel's words: "You keep finding something to fight for.", in his case protecting Ellie as his new spiritual daughter is what he is fighting for. Losing Ellie would mean losing his purpose in life just after finding it again. -Even if a cure was successfully created from the sacrifice of Ellie, I wonder if humanity would be even able to distribute it and after all there are other ways to die than transforming into an infected from non-lethal bite; hunters being trigger happy looters & infected being more than capable of doing lethal bludgeoning / ripping / biting. So basically even if all humans became immune to the infection there would be no guarantees that all beings coexist happily after being survivors for so long and the way to non-hostile surviving would be through crops & livestock like Tommy & Maria have planned for their community's future. Otherwise people are mostly military supervised / "protected" / deprived of fair rations - or living on the road, hunter style. I guess the cure would work in the way that there could be no more hosts for infection and each killed infected would be one closer to extinction. -It's been 20 years since the outbreak and Joel's character is the "has very few moral lines to cross" -archetype by design, he has seen and sees the dark side of humanity and is one with it too as a survivor. He probably hates most of humankind at this point - everyone is just trying to kill everyone at the first chance they get to survive a day longer, he feels humankind is not worthy of a cure. Some repetition in my thoughts but they should make some fair points for why the ending is pretty sound if you were in Joel's shoes as a 20 years and going survivor who has seen most all or in Ellie's shoes (forced by Joel's decision but still as a person who was never asked to decide if she wanted to die for the _chance_ to _possibly_ aid the current "humanity" to get rid of one way to die among many) fearing to be alone.