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...'
Yes. Because at the end of Tlou he went into a hospital and murdered everyone, thereby making him a cold blooded serial killer. Yes, he did it as a father who did not want to lose his child but still...he effectively is responsible for "creating" Abby and the new fireflies. I don't know about you but the ending to TLou was seriously disturbing. Here's a shot at a cure to save the world, next thing I know I'm killing everyone. Joel sold Ellie a lie. He was trying to prove his love was greater than anything else but he never revealed to her the price he had to pay.
Sold out? It makes sense that there would be surviving children of that massacre!?! How in the fuck is that selling out lol? You cry for originality and blah blah but you don't even see what's in front of you. Tlou IS NOT ORIGINAL IN ANY WAY. That journey has been told a thousand times.
I mean you can barely support the points of your own argument. Apparently everything is cliche and bourgeois lol. It's all about context brother. You need to frame the actions in the context and that's what the series is about, it's about seeing the other side of someone else's argument. You're only choosing to see one side of the story and ignoring the other side. That's the power of ignorance. Ignorance and the refusal to understand someone else's motives is the reason why were destroying each other IRL over and over. Don't get me wrong, when I first played the game I was outraged by Joel's death and I was looking forward to killing Abby and everyone else in that room. Then when I was given control of Abby I hated every minute of it. I refused to follow her story and forced myself to reach the Ellie episodes. But slowly, especially through her treatment of Lev, I began to see things from Abby's POV. Abby was someone's little girl too. Sure, she went a bit overboard with the bench press but I understood her motives too.
If even after you've experienced Abby's side, you're still outraged then for me this reaction to Tlou2 is a-typical "AMERICAN HERO" bullshit, as in the hero's actions, no matter how heinous, grant him immunity. Well bullshit, that world died a long time ago. There's consequences dude. Joel rightly paid for his actions and jesus christ did you see how much it ruined Ellie? It turned her into a motiveless, murdering, revenging bitch. By sparing her, Abby allowed Ellie to see a different perspective of the same argument.
Here's much better question, how do much more powerful would Tlou2 have been if Joel was alive? His death propels Ellie forwards, without what is she doing? She's living a lie anyway.
And lol if you think Tlou was unique and original.