SPOILER WARNING: This characteristic will reveal key plot factors – together with the ending – of The Final of Us Half 1 and The Final of Us Half 2
Many individuals who know what Joel did on the finish of The Final of Us is perhaps horrified by that query, however with the remake of half 1 on the horizon, let’s replicate on it, and on Joel’s monumental choice on the finish of the primary sport. Was it simply brutality and selfishness by Joel, or was he proper to do what he did?
Joel made the world-changing choice to save lots of Ellie’s life as a substitute of making a treatment for the an infection. Joel killed dozens of individuals from a faction known as the Fireflies, who needed to kill Ellie and use her as a possible treatment for Cordyceps – the illness that’s worn out many of the planet. Does Joel’s choice make sense outdoors of his love for Ellie? Allow us to take a look at the world of The Final of Us. It’s a horrible post-apocalyptic place, dropped at its knees by a fungal plague that turns folks into mushroom zombies, and with pockets of humanity seemingly ready to do something to outlive. One of many huge classes we study from our journey throughout each video games is that individuals will be monstrous additionally.
In Joel’s journey we come throughout cannibals who take Ellie and scavengers who’re keen to do something with a purpose to survive. Morality has disappeared from this world; it’s a luxurious, and survival comes forward of petty ethical issues like ‘proper and mistaken.’ In a world the place cannibalism looks like a fairly good concept, one thing has gone terribly mistaken. Now think about seeing all this from the eyes of Joel – somebody who’s seen first-hand how low humanity has stooped with a purpose to save itself.
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This poses an even bigger query: is humanity value saving? After every little thing Joel has witnessed, why would he assume the folks left are in some way extra worthwhile than Ellie? The Fireflies have a grand scheme of constructing a treatment and making the world nice once more, however this may trigger its personal issues, beginning with possession. Fireflies would have leverage over your complete world with a treatment, and already you may envision a nefarious ‘huge pharma’ company forming. The treatment, in any case, might be the best and most elusive object of energy on the earth of The Final of Us.
Would the Fireflies not turn out to be corrupt or power-hungry, getting right into a place the place they may extort anybody with a small vial of a treatment? Would this not result in warfare? Many armed militias can be determined for a treatment both to save lots of their very own folks or to make revenue from it to additional shield themselves.
We already know with Joel’s brother, Tommy, that bandits consistently raid his hydroelectric dam which powers Tommy’s little city in Jackson County. The folks in his city aren’t aggressive so the bandits wreak havoc and not using a private motive to instigate an assault. With precise energy at stake, the raiders and rival factions can be out in pressure. Joel has seen sufficient in his journey to know {that a} treatment wouldn’t repair this ruinous world, and in reality might escalate current conflicts.
The apocalyptic imaginative and prescient of The Final of Us reveals the inhumanity inside humanity. Joel now not trusts folks. Many would disagree along with his misanthropic, pessimistic viewpoint, however you could possibly argue that subsequent occasions vindicate it. Take a look at what occurred in Half 2. Joel helped a bunch of survivors, who turned out to be members of a faction known as the WLF, led by Abby – a lady on the lookout for her father’s killer, who occurs to be Joel. Her group owed Joel their lives as that they had little probability of survival earlier than he arrived. But, he was killed by them . Ultimately Joel’s views, though drastic, did make sense on this new modified world.
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In The Final of Us Half 2, we see fixed faction wars between the Washington Liberation Entrance (WLF) and the Seraphites (Scars). The Seraphites are a primal cult that believes in a prophet and even helps human sacrifice as repentance for his or her sins. The WLF are extraordinarily hostile to outsiders and distrustful of even their very own members. They’ve an enormous arsenal of weapons and aren’t afraid to make use of them. Each factions are darkish, mistrusting, and tribal, and consultant of the risks of teams getting energy.
Then there are the slavers, generally known as Rattlers, who kidnapped Abby and Lev. They merely noticed potential cash in entrance of them and took their human merchandise. Continuously we’re reminded of humanity’s failings. Even the Fireflies, who made Joel appear like the villain after he refused handy over Ellie for the treatment, had been killing kids in hopes of discovering a treatment, and bombing buildings in response to the armed navy who managed quarantine zones. The worst issues that are likely to occur to characters inside The Final of Us are a results of human exercise.
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In a world of slavers, cults and armed militias – none of whom appear to have the folks’s finest pursuits at coronary heart – you may see the place Joel’s belief points might come from.
There’s a sturdy case to be made {that a} treatment would trigger extra issues than options.The nefarious factions of the world have their energy constructions and pursuits in keepings issues as they’re. What’s to cease the likes of the WLF from taking the treatment for themselves, giving it solely to their very own and turning into a far larger energy within the course of? Somebody just like the Scars would most likely see the treatment as blasphemous to their beliefs, as they believed the ‘previous world’ was stuffed with sin and refused to make use of expertise created earlier than the pandemic.
So was Joel onto one thing? What he did was brutal and sinful, however his choice might have been right. A treatment wouldn’t essentially diminish the brutality this world has given beginning to, nor wouldn’t it trigger peace between these morally doubtful and violent teams. As a substitute of throwing one other doubtlessly chaotic and divisive aspect into the combination, Joel determined to dedicate all his energy to preserving Ellie, the one piece of humanity that he knew nonetheless had good left in it.
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