The Problem with Joel’s Death | The Last of Us 2

An examination into the narrative flaw behind The Last of Us 2’s most controversial scene.

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#tlou2 #GamingEssay #thelastofuspart2

[thewritest]

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[BG_EDC]

For anyone who acts like Joel just became more trusting because Jackson was a little town now is ridiculous. They continue doing dangerous routes to search for infected and people. That went totally against his character and I’d go so far to say he would have let Abby get eaten in the first place. Dude survived over 2 decades in this world. He ain’t changing. He was like that from the very start of the outbreak.

[CarltonSmith]

Why does everyone act like Joel was always 5 steps ahead when he was constantly getting ambushed in the first game. He just had protag powers and escapes anyways

[J.F.]

I think the writers just assumed for us to catch onto the idea that Joel was more trusting and not as skeptical as he was in Part 1 in the dialogue of Part 2, especially the last flash back where Joel tells Ellie where he got the coffee. This scene establishes that Joel and the community lets outsiders into Jackson for purposes of trading etc… Although it wasn’t explicitly stated it was implicit that Joel had become a more trust person and did indeed put his guard down under the stress of the hordes.

[rockychatman]

with all due respect, this vid doesn’t really work for this scenario.
1. Tommy revealed Joel’s name before Joel did.
2. Joel didn’t want to stay. He said he wanted to wait out the storm and then leave.
3. They were chased by infected in a snowstorm miles away from their own camp.
4. Joel was the first to notice when things got sus. Which is why even before the room goes quiet, they show Joel scanning the entire room.
5. Naughty Dog has NEVER spelled things out for the audience. The writing style has always been like “catch the hint bro”. Joel is shown to become a kinder man at the end of the first game(until Ellie is in danger) so it’s heavily implied that he’s grown even kinder due to Ellie’s overall influence over him.
6. It’s realistic. It shows that no matter how “superhero-ish” and “5 moves ahead” Joel seemed, he’s a human being. Placed in an overall flat out bad situation, there was nothing Joel could truly do.

The ONLY complaint you can really successfully make is that Joel walked into the dead-center middle of the room for some reason. But even with that, he had no real reason to believe that they’d had a trap waiting for him.

[stratpaul]

Joel and the whole team were doing regular patrolling. We all know the infected are slow unless a human or an animal comes into the picture. Coincidentally when abby meets joel suddenly theres a big horde. So nobody noticed this huge horde coming in their direction?

[tyrequ]

What they could do for tlou3 is having the intro start with Ellie leaving the abandoned house She and Dina lived in, she then turns around to see the sun beam down and destroy the entire world, she then wakes up in a panic and a cold sweat before Joel comes in the room and says
Joel: You Alright Kiddo?
Ellie: Umm yeah just a bad dream.
Joel: Here I bought you some food Ellie you need to eat more your gettin skinny.

[imfern.]

they werent that sudden if you think about it, witb how calm and not violent a community jackson is, and now having ellie and his brother back, it only makes sense for him to ease up over four whole years, and also he judt saved abby from a horde didnt think she was gon kill him

[Alatsno]

Anyone else think it would have been if the game just told the story chronologically?

[Purple_Lego_stud]

I never finished the second game, I was quite upset after my hero Joel died to a golf club

[connor]

I think that he should’ve been in the game at least a little bit longer and did not die so quickly and we got to see his character progress into a better character if he died like in the middle of the game I would be OK with that just he seemed like he died way too early for such a major character

[Money_maker]

Why did they need to make a new character to play as anyway

[Beeper]

No u can tell that they were suspicious of Abby right away when they started asking questions. U can also see Joel scanning the room while they answer

[PrinceOfHardhome]

He still isn't easily trusting, you see that when he tells Ellie not to tell anyone about her immunity, and asks if she told her friends, Dina or Jessie.

[danielj.garrido]

Honestly the game has great features but I wasn’t really a fan of playing as Abby because it just took you away from the plot and stuck you somewhere you didn’t expect to be. In the first game playing as Ellie was still part of the same journey and we had time to get used to her character. God of War Ragnorok employed this well because although they were two different plots going on, Atreus had already been a valuable and expected part of the gameplay. Here you play as the driving force against the player, in other words, the antagonist. Still a good game nonetheless but not one that I would replay for the story alone.

[bluebeard]

Very good explanation, i know he became more human but it shouldn't be that much no matter what anyone says

[PannaCotta]

Joel's values from the first game: helping people only if he know that he can get something back from them

1) He didnt help the family at the beginning of TLOU1 because he knew that that family couldn't do anything to improve his position". They would have been dead weigth and since Joel needed to care about Shara, he told Tommy not to stop.

2) Joel didn't fell into the trap of the Pittsburgh people because of experience. He had been on "both sides" of that kind of ambush so he knew it was a trap. Even if it wasn't a trap i doubt he would have helped the guy due to the reasons that i stated earlier

3) He helped Sam and Henry. "Oh, but Ellie changed his mind". Yeah, sure, with a dumb cliché sentence. Joel was initially warried because he was carryng the litteral cure of litterally 15 seconds later, he decidet to team up with Henry ans Sam. He knew that they would be useful in that scenario (escaping Pittsburgh)

4) Joel helped Abby. He was in the middle of a horde and the more people you can get help from, the better. Abby, indeed, saved Joel and Tommy from the horde. If it wasn't for her they both would have died by infected.

All of that just to say that Joel isn't inconsistent or other froggy stuff...

[spiralxoxo]

THANK YOU! Someone with Brain. Exactly what I thought. 20 years surviving very smart, and 25 years surviving in Part 2, and they just made him idiot just to kill him quickly, I mean, he didn't even have his gun when Abby shot him. Wtf

[dylanoshea]

The whole "mystery of the original Uncharted 4" feels like an Uncharted game in itself. Trying to piece together the pieces of what could've been but instead was just left to be forever "lost". Amy Hennig's story sounds so different yet still vaguely similar to what we got. And I wish we at least got to see more.

9:55 This part went hard. Imagination is no joke. Expectations are such a nerve sweating ideal as it makes the possibility of disappointment that more painful. You want someone to have a good wrap up to their character arc? News flash, they don't. You want a character you don't like to not appear? Well guess what? They end up taking up a good chunk of runtime while everyone else you do care about is pushed aside. Fun gameplay? Weeeelll... (note: this is not directly to the Uncharted series, this is just media in general)

In the end it all comes down to the developers and writers to make these decisions and us, as the audience, have to stand by and wait to see what happens. To see if it truly pays off in the end.

[LukeHarris-vn]

Joel has always had a good heart but had to hide it due to the situation he's in creating a rough and grizeled outer shell but joel wouldnt let a seemingly innocemt girl get mauled by clickers in any scenario