Last of us 2- Yes spoilers ahead (For game 1 and 2)
The LoU2 was an emotional ride that by the end of my let’s play I wasn’t able to really give a review or my honest opinion of the game itself. It wasn’t until I let my brain air out that I was able to look at the game as a whole to really give my two cents. It was a long time coming waiting for the second game in this world and I cannot honestly state if it was the game we needed at this time especially with everything happening in the USA. The graphics where top notch once again naughty dog put effort into their games and you can see the emotions from the character, the music alone becomes a character driving home some story elements that I feel some may have missed due to the other element in this game.
Some of the Characters:
Joel:
We all have come to know and love Joel at least through the first game and while we faced the images of him losing his daughter it is the fact that he may have lost one other before his daughter. His wife- aka Sarah’s mother is MIA. The last of us made it clear that Joel is a single father trying and struggling to keep a paying job to provide for himself and Sarah. During the first game this is hinted during the phone call at the beginning with Joel stating: “I can’t lose this job”. It is hinted even more when he talks to Sarah about her gift and how she had enough money for it, followed with the statement of “You can start helping out with the mortgage then.”
When the zombies hit the fan, we can easily see that Joel and Sarah are only worried about each other (Tommy as well). Even if there was a divorce between Joel and the mother most likely Sarah would show some worries about her mother (Unless it was a woman from hell). And clearly if you played the first game you know Joel is faced with the second loss in his family Sarah. All of this pushing Joel to make himself cold and hard and willing to do anything to survive which is somewhat talked about between Tommy and him in the first game with the comment of “Took care? That’s what you call it? I got nothing but nightmares from those years.”
By the time Ellie joins Joel and the end of the game happens, we start to see Joel opening up and looking at Ellie as a daughter figure. However, the scar of losing family stays with him as he has nightmares throughout the whole first game which is clearly related to the loss of his family (Joel may in fact be dealing with PTSD from these losses).
By the end of the game we see Joel decide to matters into his own hands and protect the family he now has created with Ellie by removing her from the operation table and killing the fireflies who tried to talk him out of it.
Was this the right thing, while this was the driving topic for the second game I honestly believe Joel did do the right thing by saving his adopted daughter. While he did not get the ok from Ellie we need to keep in mind a few things. The first is the fact in the first game we find out they will kill Ellie to POSSIBLY find a cure. The “Doctors” of the fireflies clearly have no idea when it comes to pathology let alone human subjects. Even in the second game Abby’s father who would have ended Ellie’s life is hinted to most likely be a veterinarian not a human doctor. The second thing that we need to understand as of now even in 2020 there has never been a vaccine for fungal infections in 2013 which is when the game takes place. Tesfahuneygn & Gebreegziabher (2018) stated that the lack of knowledge about the mechanisms that underpin protective immunity has made it hard in creating a vaccine for fungal diseases (which the disease/virus in the Last of us world is fungal). During the research paper cited above it did state at least in 2018 there is several fungal vaccines in development however it noted that each vaccine will most likely have to be tailored when it comes to the fungal side of pathology.
The second issue that we have with the game aiming to ok killing off Ellie for a vaccine is that it will not help those who already have the sickness in fact we would need a more therapeutic vaccine which is a whole other issue as of now our world is looking into therapeutic vaccines for things such as HIV, Herpes, Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Really what the Fireflies should have been looking into is antibodies meaning you would want to keep the host alive not dead, so all in all in my view Joel did the right thing, maybe….maybe at the very least he should have only shot the doctors in the leg but once again you had a man trying to protect his only family.
Ellie:
We have now watch Ellie grow up between these two games and we have to understand a few things. She has killed before, she did what she had to do to survive. In the world that she grew up in there was no ethics pushed or educated to the younger generation the saying “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” clearly was never taught. She was raised you do what you got to do to live no matter how dirty it was, and when it comes down to it revenge is ok to go for. Due to this lack of ethics, and dark world we have seen a girl who works on raw basic emotions, and a girl/woman who is unable to stop until she losses everything even what Joel gives her (the loss of her fingers) the gift of music and her own family ( Dina and her child) to finally learn how to forgive or at the very least move on.
We also get the feel of daughter like father as the death of Joel clearly has caused PTSD in Ellie herself with flash backs of everything that has happened and what she has done as well. There are some who have pointed out on the interweb that maybe Ellie in fact is NOT immune but has a different response to the fungal zombie diseases. They highlighted the fact of how quickly and easily Ellie goes into blind rage and becomes violent. We also know from the scans of her brain there is some kind of mass growth on her brain where most people start to change as a zombie.
While this is an interesting idea, I feel this would most likely take away from the emotion that is happening in the game. You have a grown woman who was starting to repair or at least take the first step to repair her relationship with her father (Joel) and give forgiveness. This was taken away from her and we see Ellie pass her anger unable to go through the process of forgiving Joel and even herself for living onto the very people who took Joel away from her. She wasn’t only punishing the killers of her father but also trying to pass her guilt and anger of being alive on them…someone had to pay- the hatred cycle wasn’t able to be eased when the chance of rebuilding her relationship with Joel was ripped away from her.
Abby:
Her physical body screams loudly about some of her own worries about her own life. She wasn’t able to control the fact her father was killed by Joel, this left her feeling powerless, and weak. However Abby in a lot of cases I still feel failed her father. While by the end of it she was able to find forgiveness for all the horrible things done (the image of her father smiling at the end) and is able to let go she could have stopped this hatred. This would have been done by not making herself into a weapon but studying and following her father in his footsteps by becoming a doctor or some part of the medical field.
In the LoU2 we are giving the idea that all the “doctors” were killed by Joel and there was no one left to make a vaccine. The funny thing is most doctors even more so as they are creating things such as vaccines would keep detailed notes about what they have found, what worked and what failed. The hospital which you are still able to visit in part two was not blown up meaning that notes would have been left behind for a new generation of researchers to pick up and finish the research (hopefully a bit smarter as well). However, instead of Abby doing this she fell into the easier thing to do which is hate and killing the man who was only protecting his daughter. Which I can tell you right now if the roles where changed around Abby’s father would have done the same damn thing as Joel. To be honest this whole thing that there was no one left to continue the research was the biggest story hole in the game. It’s that reason alone why I could never get attached or agree with Abby and her group.
Music: In the last of us 2 the music was its own message and character. Looking at the Joel song only right now.
Future Days: This is Joel’s song to Ellie, and it has a bigger meaning then showing off his skills. Like we talked about up top we know Joel was a broken man dealing with some form of PTSD. With Ellie he was starting to heal and losing her even over the fight about him saving her easily breaks him again. He wanted to tell her that he loves her like a daughter but in a Joel way he is unable to clearly just state it out right so he sings this song hoping to reach her.
“If I ever were to lose you I’d surely lose myself” – This line can hint to Ellie why he saved her back in game one, and even hint that their hurt relationship leaves him adrift.
“Everything I have found, dear I’ve not found by myself”- This hints about their new life together and even in the town of Jackson before the fall out- they started to have a good life together the closets thing you could call a normal life.
“All my stolen missing parts. I ‘ve no need for anymore”- This can be a call back of his original family the loss of his wife and Sarah held him back in game 1 but now while he will not forget them he doesn’t need to focus on that loss.
“And I believe ‘cause I can see…Our future days, Days of you and me.” This line for Joel would be him reaching out to Ellie that even though things got messed up between them he hopes and can see that they can be a family again. He believed in the both of them in this messed up world.
“And all the promises at sundown. I’ve meant them like the rest… all the demons used to come’round…I’m grateful now they’ve left.- Joel is trying to let Ellie know no matter what he promised to keep her safe and planned on to continue to do so. We even saw that during the dance when the fight broke out even though Ellie and Joel was fighting Joel still came in trying to protect Ellie.
While maybe I will add a section more on the music later on it is something to pay attention to in the game. Over all the game had amazing graphics (Still was able to find a game breaking bug though can see that in my lets play), the story however, I had to breath for a bit to wrap my head around it. The story of part 2 was so filled with hate on all sides that it was heart breaking. It could easily make someone who played through it feel worn down and unable to see past the hatred. Throughout the game I stated I couldn’t forgive or get attached to Abby because she just didn’t get it in a lot of ways she acted like a brat not moving on with her life.
Ellie was dragged into that hatred and is not innocent by far, and she has the scars emotional and physically as her punishment for falling into this horrible cycle. To be honest I was hoping the game was going to be more focused on the zombies not just this vengeance death story between two broke humans. Naughty dog did get the emotion out of their players that they wanted which was the hate, you can easily see this through many other lets plays online. However, during this time period we are seeing between the pandemic and where the world is standing especially the USA it would have been nice at least at the end of it that we had some hope.
Some stated well she might have gone back with Dina, however if you pay attention Ellie did have the bracelet on as she was leaving to me this would hint she had put it in her back pack with her coat while being in the warmer weather area. And after the finally show down most likely got her backpack before returning to an empty house. Maybe their message was hey hatred is not going to get you anywhere you will end up alone which is what we saw of Ellie at the end of the game almost giving the player another punch in the gut as we see Ellie facing the one thing she scared of
References:
Tesfahuneygn G, Gebreegziabher G (2018) Development of Vaccination against Fungal Disease: A Review Article. Int J Trop Dis 1:005. doi.org/10.23937/ijtd-2017/1710005
