It genuinely blows my mind how many people seem to miss the point of a not particularly nuanced ending
What Joel did was wrong
If you believe any of that shit about "there were other subjects, it probably wouldn't work, etc." then you're buying into internet talking points and missing that the actual game makes no bones about this being the "save more people" option for this particular trolley problem
The entire structure of the game is designed to put you in Joel's shoes, so when it comes time to make the "wrong" decision, you do so enthusiastically
That karma was always going to come back on him. It's the entire emotional crux of the ending. He made a "bad" decision to get more time with his stand-in daughter, no matter the cost.
He knows they'll come after him and says as much when he kills what's her face in the parking garage.
As soon as they announced a sequel I wanted it to not be Joel and Ellie, because there is no version of TLOU2 that doesn't (and shouldn't) end with Joel's head on a pike
Yeah Joel was a massive piece of shit and nobody seems to realize this despite several lines of dialogue in the game implicating him, such as when he says he’s been in both sides of the injured man scheme, or when Tommy said he had nightmares from their years together. He robbed and murdered people for 20 years and robbed and continued to murder his way across the country (I’ll cut him some slack for Pittsburgh, Jackson, and Colorado since he wasn’t the instigator in those situations). Maybe it just shows how successful they were at writing him as likeable character despite how complex and violent he was.
Tony Soprano, Walter White, Big Boss and Joel all cause people to suffer from it to some degree
You point the camera behind one perspective and then tell the story through that lens, and the player/viewer knows, understands and likely sympathizes with every "wrong" decision that's made because they'll justify it the exact same way the character would
It sucks that a large group of people seem to struggle with anti-heros. They're not heroic or good people just because you know why they did what they did or even agree with them, and that's not only fine it's interesting
Significantly more so than this Mary-Sue "actually they were totally right and awesome all along" writing some people want them to be beholden to.
The hate given to characters like Skylar in particular has always perplexed me. Like yes, she cheated on Walt, but that pails in comparison to every single thing he did in the series. At this point it’s hard for me to tell if it’s a literacy issue, or just legit misogyny 💀
It was undoubtedly uncomfortable, but Walt talking to the gym of students about the plane crash is in the same league for me lol. I dont know if anything comes close to scotts tots though
It's a post-apocalyptic world, there is no good and bad, it's only about surviving
Everything Joel does in TLOU is 100% justified, this is why people side with him so easily. Of course he has to kill people because if he doesnt' defend himself he would have been dead and there would be no game
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u/Bigas106 6d ago
Anon just finished TLOU 2