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 likely to be 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 recreation. 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 an alternative of making a remedy for the an infection. Joel killed dozens of individuals from a faction known as the Fireflies, who wished to kill Ellie and use her as a possible remedy for Cordyceps – the illness that’s worn out a lot 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 individuals into mushroom zombies, and with pockets of humanity seemingly ready to do something to outlive. One of many huge classes we be taught from our journey throughout each video games is that folks may be monstrous additionally.
In Joel’s journey we come throughout cannibals who take Ellie and scavengers who’re keen to do something with the intention to survive. Morality has disappeared from this world; it’s a luxurious, and survival comes forward of petty ethical issues like ‘proper and incorrect.’ In a world the place cannibalism looks as if a fairly good concept, you recognize one thing has gone terribly incorrect. Now think about seeing all this from the eyes of Joel – somebody who’s seen first-hand how low humanity has stooped with the intention to save itself.
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This poses a much bigger query: is humanity price saving? After all the things Joel has witnessed, why would he suppose the individuals left are one way or the other extra worthwhile than Ellie? The Fireflies have a grand scheme of constructing a remedy and making the world nice once more, however this is able to trigger its personal issues, beginning with possession. Fireflies would have leverage over the complete world with a remedy, and already you’ll be able to envision a nefarious ‘huge pharma’ company forming. The remedy, in any case, might be the best and most elusive object of energy on the planet of The Final of Us.
Would the Fireflies not grow to be corrupt or power-hungry, getting right into a place the place they might extort anybody with a small vial of a remedy? Would this not result in conflict? Many armed militias could be determined for a remedy both to save lots of their very own individuals or to make revenue from it to additional shield themselves.
We already know with Joel’s brother, Tommy, that bandits continually raid his hydroelectric dam which powers Tommy’s little city in Jackson County. The individuals in his city aren’t aggressive so the bandits wreak havoc with no private purpose to instigate an assault. With precise energy at stake, the raiders and rival factions could be out in pressure. Joel has seen sufficient in his journey to know {that a} remedy wouldn’t repair this ruinous world, and actually might escalate present conflicts.
The apocalyptic imaginative and prescient of The Final of Us reveals the inhumanity inside humanity. Joel now not trusts individuals. Many would disagree along with his misanthropic, pessimistic viewpoint, however you can 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 in search of her father’s killer, who occurs to be Joel. Her group owed Joel their lives as they’d little probability of survival earlier than he arrived. But, he was killed by them . Ultimately Joel’s views, regardless that 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 should not afraid to make use of them. Each factions are darkish, mistrusting, and tribal, and consultant of the hazards 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. Consistently we’re reminded of humanity’s failings. Even the Fireflies, who made Joel appear like the villain after he refused at hand over Ellie for the remedy, had been killing kids in hopes of discovering a remedy, and bombing buildings in response to the armed navy who managed quarantine zones. The worst issues that are inclined 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 individuals’s finest pursuits at coronary heart – you’ll be able to see the place Joel’s belief points might come from.
There’s a sturdy case to be made {that a} remedy 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 remedy for themselves, giving it solely to their very own and changing into a far greater energy within the course of? Somebody just like the Scars would most likely see the remedy 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 could have been appropriate. A remedy 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 probably chaotic and divisive ingredient 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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