The Last Of Us question [spoiler]

[Highwayman]

For those of you who've beaten the game, do you think Joel did the right thing?

[EmperorWu]

No, or yes... Life is hard, even in a video game.

No for the sake of humanity. But how many people wouldn't have done the same thing? I don't know.

[Highwayman]

No, or yes... Life is hard, even in a video game.

No for the sake of humanity. But how many people wouldn't have done the same thing? I don't know.

It rubs me the wrong way how Joel's turned Ellie into Sarah.

[Viazon]

I think, if you are not in the situation yourself, then it is easy to say that one person's death is worth it, if it meant saving everyone else. Who knows, if Ellie knew the deal, she may have even offered her life herself. You never know. But is it such an easy sacrifice to make when it's someone you care about? Ellie wasn't Joel's daughter but he grew to care for her like one. What if it was your daughter? Or son? Or any other family member? I think it's one of those things that sounds easy in theory but when it comes to it, you just can't allow it to happen. I'm sure anyone else in his situation would have done the same.

[Georgerv]

I think I remember there being some audio logs and stuff around the hospital at the end that explained others, like Eliie, had already been tested on died and the experiment failed anyway. So there's no guarantee Ellie would have been the cure, in fact it was highly unlikely.

I think Joel did the right thing, IMO Ellie is far too young to make the decision to die herself, and Joel had essentially become her guardian (legal or not), so I'd say he had the right to make the decision in that situation.

Plus the fireflies were being real dicks in the last couple of cut scenes, not even letting Joel say goodbye and stuff, that just made me mad.

I have gone back and forth on it though, and I love that a videogame gave me so much food for thought, might have to go replay it now

[Daz]

Joe did the right thing for him, and for Ellie. I never took it to be him replacing his daughter with Ellie, I took it more as not letting someone he'd come to care for die needlessly, like so many other people. There was no guarantee what the Fireflies were going to do would have worked and if Ellie was somehow immune, then there's a good chance there were others of her generation who were as well.

Of course, on the flip side of that, if they could have used her to cure the world, so to speak, it would have been worth the sacrifice. And it was a sacrifice Ellie would have made. So it may have been the wrong decision on Joel's part to save her.

The ending to me, when she confronts Joel about it, always read like she knew he was lying, but she loved him and was willing to live with that.

[War Daddy]

All I know is the game took my heart and stomped on it several times.

[Daz]

All I know is the game took my heart and stomped on it several times.

You are not alone in this.

[Highwayman]

Joe did the right thing for him, and for Ellie. I never took it to be him replacing his daughter with Ellie, I took it more as not letting someone he'd come to care for die needlessly, like so many other people. There was no guarantee what the Fireflies were going to do would have worked and if Ellie was somehow immune, then there's a good chance there were others of her generation who were as well.

Of course, on the flip side of that, if they could have used her to cure the world, so to speak, it would have been worth the sacrifice. And it was a sacrifice Ellie would have made. So it may have been the wrong decision on Joel's part to save her.

The ending to me, when she confronts Joel about it, always read like she knew he was lying, but she loved him and was willing to live with that.

I'm pretty sure the daughter angle was meant to happen. Hell, you BEGIN the game as Sarah, you end the game as Ellie, the last scene where you're Joel you are carrying Ellie through a hospital in a hail of gunfire. The logs do say that these tests can lead to the cure/vaccine. I don't remember hearing about the other test patients, wouldn't doubt it to be true though. See Ellie wasn't immune, her version of it mutated. Joel takes Ellie back to Tommy's, lies to her about the Fireflies, and in my opinion, attempts to recreate the past life he had the best he can. The last time anything in the world was close to sane. I think Joel's a bad person. Even early in the game, he's seen having a convo on the phone with Tommy where he's not too interested in what he has to say. He suggests Tommy pass the group begging for help. Tommy says living with Joel was hell....Joel uses the survivorman thing as an excuse.

I think the story is this: The world took everything away from him, so he took everything away from the world.

[SortaCreative]

I think if I was in Joel's shoes I would have done the same thing.

[Highwayman]

I think if I was in Joel's shoes I would have done the same thing.

The game is so good I was in Joel's shoes. I burst through that door and murdered everybody in the room before I even saw Ellie. I started the game thinking Ellie was an attractive teenage girl, to thinking as if she's my daughter. I've never seen a game fuck with your instincts like that before. I never wanted to protect someone more than her, lol. But after the game...I realized that it was emotion driven, not..well, logical.

[SortaCreative]

I think if I was in Joel's shoes I would have done the same thing.

The game is so good I was in Joel's shoes. I burst through that door and murdered everybody in the room before I even saw Ellie. I started the game thinking Ellie was an attractive teenage girl, to thinking as if she's my daughter. I've never seen a game fuck with your instincts like that before. I never wanted to protect someone more than her, lol. But after the game...I realized that it was emotion driven, not..well, logical.

I know what you mean.

I killed all the doctors straight away too. I didn't realise that you could not shoot them. I just ran in and blasted them. Get the fuck away from my Ellie.

[Daz]

Joe did the right thing for him, and for Ellie. I never took it to be him replacing his daughter with Ellie, I took it more as not letting someone he'd come to care for die needlessly, like so many other people. There was no guarantee what the Fireflies were going to do would have worked and if Ellie was somehow immune, then there's a good chance there were others of her generation who were as well.

Of course, on the flip side of that, if they could have used her to cure the world, so to speak, it would have been worth the sacrifice. And it was a sacrifice Ellie would have made. So it may have been the wrong decision on Joel's part to save her.

The ending to me, when she confronts Joel about it, always read like she knew he was lying, but she loved him and was willing to live with that.

I'm pretty sure the daughter angle was meant to happen. Hell, you BEGIN the game as Sarah, you end the game as Ellie, the last scene where you're Joel you are carrying Ellie through a hospital in a hail of gunfire. The logs do say that these tests can lead to the cure/vaccine. I don't remember hearing about the other test patients, wouldn't doubt it to be true though. See Ellie wasn't immune, her version of it mutated. Joel takes Ellie back to Tommy's, lies to her about the Fireflies, and in my opinion, attempts to recreate the past life he had the best he can. The last time anything in the world was close to sane. I think Joel's a bad person. Even early in the game, he's seen having a convo on the phone with Tommy where he's not too interested in what he has to say. He suggests Tommy pass the group begging for help. Tommy says living with Joel was hell....Joel uses the survivorman thing as an excuse.

I think the story is this: The world took everything away from him, so he took everything away from the world.

Again, I see it more as Joel took himself out of the world, so the world couldn't take anything more from him. It was Ellie that dragged him back into it, and then he had something to lose. So he ensured he didn't. I don't see Joel as a bad person, he's just in an impossible situation, and at the end of the day, he can only do what's right by him, and by the end of the game, what's right by Ellie.

[Highwayman]

I think it's a bit deeper than that. Joel's confronted with his own hypocrisy.

He said, and I'm paraphrasing: "The needs of many outweigh the needs of one"...

...and at the end of the game, he's taking Ellie back to la-la-land with uncle Tommy. IDK.

[GameDesigner14]

I think that Joel did the right thing in the end, I also remember a tape saying that tests were done on others and it didn't make any difference. To be honest there weren't many survivors left and what was the cure going to reverse? Were they able to turn the clickers back into humans...did humans die before they turned? If so, once they're dead I don't think the cure would have mattered.

[War Daddy]

Let's be honest here, would the cure matter that much in the current state of the world? Maybe, to ensure the future generations survive. However, at it's current state, I dont see a cure being much help.