Simple question, simple poll. Do you think Naughty Dog did the right thing killing Joel?
Allow me to clarify. I personally felt having waited so long for this game that as soon as Joel was killed, the game lost all intrinsic value for me as a gamer. The original The Last of Us game captured my emotions and attentions not because of any diversity or political statement, but because I fell in love with the relationship between Joel and Ellie. Watching the relationship blossom and seeing how much Ellie filled a long gaping hole in Joel's life was beautiful. Ellie went from being a burden at the beginning of their journey to absolutely irreplaceable to Joel by the end of the game. This had nothing to do with her immunity, but in a way I would argue that Joel's love for Ellie was because her grew to see her as a surrogate daughter and whilst he was always aware of his mission to get Ellie to the fireflys, he never wanted Ellie to be happy or safe because he wanted to protect the possible cure for humanity, by the end of the first game he saw the importance of her life as an individual and he cared deeply for her that he wanted her to live a full and long life and he was prepared to do anything and I mean anything to protect her.
I sympathised with Joel and his plight because I understand loss and what it can do, leaving a hole in your life that can never be filled again the same way. I believe that as much as he was an anti-hero, I loved the fact that there was no boundary on anything that he was prepared to do to ensure her safety. Watching Joel become this guardian demon and the way he would torture, kill or fight tooth and nail to protect her was inspiring and maybe for the wrong reasons. Clearly the developers wanted us to grow to hate Joel for who he and is what he had done throughout the events of the game and what we know of his life. But I found myself stuck in his shoes thinking that if I was in his position I would have done the exact same thing.
I didn't sympathise with Abby. Or Lev. Or Dina. Or Jesse. Or many of the characters in the second game. I even begun to lose my love for Ellie the more the game went on. In fact I found myself feeling worse for Tommy. We virtually used pregnancy as a way to 'one-up' the level of depravity and those 'Oh shit!!!' moments that we experienced in the first game. Honestly I think if we knew Joel was going to die from the outset this game would have reviewed a lot differently. Never mind the media and their never ending championing of the game for diversity and exclusivity, I didn't play these games for political reasons. The second Joel was murdered I lost all motivation and excite that I had to play this game. It became a slog over time and by the end I was just glad it was finished because the pacing was fucked up and it didn't make any sense continuing after Abby nearly killed Ellie. Nor did I like the mixed message of revenge good for Abby, revenge bad for Ellie.
Killing Joel made me lose all interest in the future of the franchise. But I know that not everyone agrees with me. My argument at the end of the day is that The Last of Us was such a unique and creative story telling experience that the fact that they chose to do something as cliche and bourgeois as making Abby a daughter of one of the original doctors that Joel killed and the story panning out the way it did, tell's me that they sold out. This story could have gone anywhere. It could have told the story of Joel and Ellie trying to survive when the remnants of the fireflys want to take Ellie by force and kill Joel for what he did and they're constantly on the run etc. Had Joel died in those circumstances it might have made sense to me. But I honestly think the story of the game was just as poorly thought out as the moment a character in a beloved franchise is revealed to be a clone, or a long lost brother etc. Any of those cliche and quite honestly boring fucking plot twists that makes you sigh and say 'Oh no, not this shit again...'
Yup.
The first game sets it up for a reason. He's own words and actions set up what was likely already written for him years prior. Neil wrote this game so long ago, its extremely likely that he already had for years the whole series planned out.
The doctor, killing Marlene, him being a former Firefly etc.
As for the bolded. I play games to hear the story as a whole, not based on 1 character or something. I'd say stick to some Saturday morning cartoon stuff for that type of fiction my friend, the universe in The Last Of Us has never entered this idea that anyone was invincible to death or something. You are looking for something that was never going to exist in this series...... it wasn't made for that.
I feel in love with the relationship between Tess and Joel should I never play the rest of the game? I like the characters of the brothers found in the first game, should I stop playing it when they die? So....maybe gamers need to actually understand that the ENTRE story matteres and not simply some fan fiction of what we imagine or want the game to be based on some love of a pixle. It starts to sound really shallow, like girls who watch Twilight telling you how much they like this couple over the other or something...... I'm sure many really watch things like this, but I don't think most put much stock in that type of Teen Bop stuff in terms of liking certain media. I'd like to believe gamers actually care about the entire package vs 1 character.
You don't need to sympathize with Abby. This is a fucking video game, not a popularity contest. I didn't give a fuck that Joel died.....he got what he got and I would have fucking killed him WORSE. Didn't stop me from enjoying the game cause I hated a character, the game was not made for you to "love" all the characters.
Thats how REAL LIFE IS, we fucking talk about people we dislike all the time on this thread, but in a game referenced from life you expected to like 100% of people or something? you needed to "love" all of them? huh?
Soooooo Ellie is a set of pixels. In this game she grew up, what you like about this person in the first game is also based on your ASSUMPTION of what you think she'll be like as an adult, people grow up, thats life, they make bad choices and do bad things. If you "love" this character, except the bad shit they do no different then you would a person that actually exist.
You love the fucking fanfiction IDEA about this person that NEVER grows up and behaves as an adult.
The future of the franchise was never going to be about Joel. So....you seem to be under this assumption that the series was made for that 1 character or something. Thats like me not playing the rest of the games cause its not about Tess......
So....that 1 character is the only reason you like the series?
Sounds a lot like this shit if you ask me bud.
I think this is fucking weird for so many reasons.
Many shows and films have people die all the time, when someone is getting so hot for some fan fiction they are telling us 1 character dying makes them lose interest in the series, you must question what the fuck they are even watching for based on 1 character. This sounds like Twilight, Teen Bop fan fiction crap bud.
So I put my interest in a show, film, book and game in the actual universe of the world.
Not 1 character.
So I can't see myself no longer watching this show cause this dude died and I like Hank, I think he was a cool character and really got the drop on Walter......
What I don't do is go around doing this fucking Stan shit like #TeamHank, #FuckBreakingBad and or #OMGZitsOVER etc You've basically put 1 character above the whole fucking series. So you spent 7 years hoping for FanFiction. I spent 7 years watching and reading shit like this where PEOPLE FUCKING DIE, that is LIFE, that is what happens all the time, hell for years I thought Marlene's family was going to kill him or something or the Doctors family and I was right on one of those assumptions. The game foreshadows him dying, the fact that you had NO CHOICE with the doctor in killing him was clear as day it was a massive part of the game if you had no choice, same with the Marlene ending. So I simply assumed he would die by one of them one day. Why? Shit look at the fucking game, look at how many people die, why would Joel be any different? So I simply can't play or watch shit based on 1 character as if nothing else is important. This wasn't even a game NAMED after this dude.