As someone who is a big fan of the first game, The Last of Us, I was quite disappointed at first by the second game. For anyone who may not know, The Last of Us is a game published in 2013 as an action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog, published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control a man named Joel, who is tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States. When they first met, they were not very fond of each other. Ellie, a 14 year old girl, who was born into the zombie apocalypse only trusted one person, Marlene. She is a firefly. No, not the insect. A firefly, or fireflies in The Last of Us series is a revolutionary militia group and an antagonist in the game.
I wont be going into too much detail into the game, but I highly recommend you play it or at least watch someone play it. There is a TV adapation of the game on HBO, yet in my opinion, it’s not that good. When traveling they fight off multiple zombies and fireflies. As a result, their bond grows. Joels only daughter, and only child died at the being of the apocalypse and was around Ellies age. Ellie never had a father, or even a mother and she soon saw Joel as her father/father figure.
When they finally reach Salt Lake City after nearly a year, they are found by a group of fireflies. Joel is knocked out and wakes up to see Marlene in a Hospital. Joel finds out to obtain the cure, Ellie would have to die (Ellie is immune to the virus, so she is the only one who could make a vaccine). This personally is one of my favorite parts of the game, you get to see how much Joel deeply cares for Ellie. Joel, without a thought killed everyone he had to, to save Ellie. He rescues Ellie, who was unconscious on the operating table. He gets cornered by Marlene, refusing to lose Ellie, he kills her and leaves the hospital in a car. Ellie finds out that Joel saved her and killed Marlene, she gets upset and thats how it ends.
Around 6 years later, The Last of Us II comes out. It takes place 5 years after the first game, Ellie now being 19 and Joel being 57. Many people were very exicted, including myself. Until, someone who worked with developing the game realesed some spoilers. The biggest spoiler being that the main chararcter, everyone loves dies. Even worse he dies right infront of Ellie while they were on bad terms too, and she couldnt do anything to save Joel. I used to hate this game due to the fact that Joel dies. However, I was thinking that maybe this game isnt actually so bad.
The first game was all about Ellie and Joel and them trying to reach Salt Lake City to make a cure. Once, Joel found out the cure would kill Ellie, he saved Ellie. He chosed to save her then to save the whole world. When Joel dies in the second game, Ellie is the main character and she is seeking revenge on everyone who killed him/who was present. This just shows how far people will go to save their loved ones. Of course, I’m upset that Joel died, but I dont think that should be the reason to not play the game. I think that the way they showed how far Joel was willing to go to save Ellie and how far Ellie was willing to go to avenge Joels death was a good way to end the series.
Sources:
https://thelastofus.fandom.com/wiki/Timeline_(HBO_series)
https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a43251793/the-last-of-us-finale-ending-explained
Pictures:
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