I saw smth on Pinterest and people were discussing the ending of The Last of Us. Perfectly normal thing to discuss, the ending is one of the most complex parts of the game. Then. I saw a bunch of people talking about how Joel? is the villain in the end? And that he was WRONG for doing what he did to the Fireflies???
Guys....they were going to kill his daughter. There are like 20 other parts in the game where you can say that Joel is a horrible person who does bad things and be correct, but you choose.....the part that's entirely self defense....?
"But-but Ellie would've wanted to do it!"
But they didn't even give her that choice? Yes, after the fact she says that she would've wanted to give her life to help make the vaccine, however in the actual moment, if she had been awake and they asked her if she would be willing to DIE in order to make a vaccine (that's not even guaranteed to work but we'll talk about that later) it's very likely that her answer would've been different. It's easy to say you would do a lot of stuff when you're not actually in that situation. And I think the fireflies knew that, so they purposely kept her unconscious to avoid even having to ask that question.
Because remember, Ellie did not know that she was going to die for this vaccine. She fully believes that they'll run some tests, take some blood, and she'll be free to go and live with Joel happily.
Second point, WHY WOULD YOU LET A FOURTEEN YEAR OLD, HEAVILY TRAUMATIZED, MAYBE EVEN SUICIDAL GIRL MAKE A DECISION LIKE THIS?????????? That's just STUPID. Children cannot make medical decisions like this for a REASON.
Third point, I am a believer of "the ends don't justify the means." Let's pretend that it's 100% guaranteed that the vaccine would've worked (which it's NOT. A common misconception in the fandom.). You are still killing a child to get there.
Still. Killing. A. Child.
Imagine you are in Joel's position, just the basic situation. Pretend that you have a child who a group of people want to murder. Because it IS murder. Sounds pretty bad? Yeah. But okay, we'll give them some grace. They want to use her brain to make a cure for a disease that is very deadly. I still wouldn't agree, but fine, they don't seem like just pure monsters anymore.
Now let's add in one other important piece of information.
The vaccine is NOT. GUARANTEED. TO. WORK. In the beginning of the game, Joel clearly says that the Fireflies are always coming up with new cures, always claiming that "this time we have it!" but it NEVER. WORKS. Why on earth would you trust them with this?? ESPECIALLY with your child's life on the line!
I have also seen (IM NOT A MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL BTW, I'VE JUST HEARD THIS ONLINE) medical professionals talking about this part of the game, and they say that the plan to remove Ellie's brain is just plain stupid. You would want her alive, to study and test, to watch her in day to day life just to figure out how the immunity works. Just killing her right there wouldn't give them the answers they wanted.
So you have a group of people, all wanting to kill your child for a vaccine not guaranteed to work at all. What parent in their right mind would agree to that????
"You say the ends does not justify the means, but you excuse Joel killing an entire hospital of people?"
Good point.
My response is that is, when you are a parent, you are fully responsible for that child. It is your DUTY to keep them safe, no matter what. It's self-defense if a mother were to kill a man actively threatening their child's safety. In Joel's case, there were just a lot more people actively threatening him AND his kid's safety. Everyone in that hospital was going to kill him, and more importantly they were going to kill Ellie.
The Fireflies are not the good guys. NONE of them are good guys. They all did horrible things, but I was completely on Joel's side for the ending.
...Other then the lying to Ellie...