I Am Your Father, TLOU Analysis (SPOILERS!!!!)

So let me just say this one more time for those who may have somehow stumbled onto this page, ignored the title, and several large spoiler warnings, in this blog I will be discussing The Last of Us in all it's spoielrific glory so if you haven't played the game then turn around now.

Alright, now that is out of the way I can finally discuss the game which is by far Naughty Dogs masterpiece and a triumph in video game storytelling. Very few games are capable of this level of mature storytelling and even fewer are capable of executing in the kind of subtle touch that Naughty Dog executed in telling this story. This isnt a game that telegraphs it's themes very loudly and in your face, it doesnt overuse powerful imagery, and very rarely makes use of large orchestral music to convey emotion. All of the major themes and story moments are told through subtle character movements and reactions, environmental clues, and excellent camera work. This leads to a game that is rich with the capability of various interpretations regarding its story, the characters, and specifically the ending. That said, the following is my own interpretation of the theme Naughty Dog was attempting to convey and my analysis of the ending.

So why don't we just jump right in at the end of the game as it seems there are two camps when it comes to interpreting the ending and the character of Joel. One set of people feel that Joel is essentially the villain of the game which he solidifies by the end with the lie to Ellie, another set believe that he was justified in his end choice and did the moral thing in that situation. I for one am in the camp that Joel made the right choice in the end, and that he is by no means the villain by the end of the game but to understand this we have to understand the character of Joel, the themes the game routinely throws at us, and the world of TLOU.

Humanity Lost

One of the major themes of the game is how due to this terrible virus which has destroyed civilized society humans themselves have become monsters, losing much of their humanity in order to survive. Now, this idea is nothing new to these types of apocalyptic stories, in fact its quite common, but TLOU pulls this theme off brilliantly. Let's take a second and look at Joel at the beginning of the game twenty years after the outbreak. At this point in time, like many other characters, Joel can barely be considered a human anymore. He is solely focused on surviving and thus like many others has very few lines of morality he hasn't crossed, he has also learned to completely shut himself off from any sort of emotional attachment to any other person. As Bill so adequately puts it later on "that sort of thing is good for one thing, getting you killed."

The tragedy of losing his daughter has taught him this lesson well, further brought home by the broken watch he carries on his wrist, Joel is literally a man stuck in time unable to move forward from this terrible loss. When we get to the point where he has to leave Tess there is no goodbye speech, no tender hug or kiss, or even some acknowledgment of an emotional reaction. No, Joel simply sucks it in and turns around, a survival tactic he has had to learn in order to cope with the constant loss associated with living in such a world. He describes this tactic later on to Ellie after Sam and Henry die, "things happen, and then you move on." You don't dwell on things, you don't form attachments, after all its the reason why Henry died he couldn't live without his little brother. His death reinforces the notion that attachments are dangerous and they get you killed in the end.

However, the introduction of Ellie essentially causes Joel to regain his humanity throughout the course of the game. Up until Ellie is introduced Joel has been living for himself and doing it anyway he can, he's surviving but has no real meaning to his life other than surviving. Ellie causes Joel to reexamine himself and his life, suddenly he begins to open up and display emotion, by the end he is fully emotionally attached to her and he realizes that their is more to life than simply surviving. That you need love, trust, and companionship in your life in order to truly be alive and that certain things shouldn't be sacrificed just to survive. This to me is the major theme the game reinforces to the player throughout the game and what leads to Joel's final choice, but we'll get to that later.

The Greater Good, Sacrifice the Few to Save the Many

This is another theme that is consistently represented throughout the game culminating in the ending dilemna. In a post-apocalyptic world hard choices have to be made in order to ensure the survival of the species, or at least that is what characters say to justify their actions. This theme is introduced to us at the very beginning of the game with the death of Joel's daughter Sarah. Sarah is not killed by an infected but by a human, a human who is supposedly moral, and capable of showing compassion and love. However, this soldier is given an order, an order to shoot anyone, including innocent civilians, in the hopes of slowing down or stopping the spread of infection. In the face of such a situation morality is thrown out of the window for the greater good and the terrible crime is committed.

This sort of rationale is shown and used by a large amount of characters we encounter throughout the game. Upon walking down the bridge in Pittsburgh Ellie comes across a car with a decayed body lying out of his car, presumably with a gunshot wound, just outside the entrance to the Quarantine Zone. Ellie asks Joel what happened and he explains how the military killed everyone outside the QZ after it had filled up and could no longer support anymore people. "Dead people don't get infected" he exclaims and then states the old familiar line "you sacrifice the few to save the many," at which point Ellie replies "that's kinda shitty." Foreshadowing at its best of course. Again, we are shown the lengths people will go through to survive even gunning down a mass of innocent civilians.

But this line of thinking isnt restricted to the military but extends to nearly every group you meet, the bandits that you routinely encounter in the game use a very similar logic, survival of the fittest. To them anyone incapable of helping the group survive in this harsh world are simply assets to be exploited, stripped for parts, and even eaten. David's crew seem to be the worst offenders of all, they have stripped away any remnants of humanity in order to survive and have no moral qualms and about killing and eating other humans in order to survive.

Of course what is most ironic is that this same line of thinking extends to the supposedly just and moral Fireflies we hear so much about in the game. Remember, the Fireflies are supposed to be the counter-weight to the oppressive and fascist like Government forces who utilize harsh tactics in order to maintain order and a semblance of civilized society. Yet, the Fireflies themselves engage in terrorists like activities, bombings are quite the norm and innocent civilians caught in the crossfire are simply martyrs for the greater cause. The ending of the game strips away all illusions concerning this group and you understand just like every other major group you encounter they will do anything it takes to survive, including killing an innocent girl.

Again, this line of thinking goes back to the central idea that under these circumstances humans are the real monsters to be feared, Bill specifically reminds Joel of this fact in the town "You know as bad as those things are, at least they are predictable. It's the normal people that scare me. You of all people should understand that."

Love as The Cure

So it sounds cheesy and cliche' but to me this theme is heavily prevalent in the game but to understand it you have to understand the various crews and communities we come across throughout the game and how the game exposes us to the various forms of living in this society. For starters, there is the Government/Quarantine Zone, a military state that survives on doing whatever is necessary to ensure survival and that there is order in the community. This means military checkpoints, random raids, ration lines, and mandatory work duty. As stated before, it's pretty funny that it seems that the Fireflies operate in this same fashion, in a very military like organization built upon the goal of providing for the "common good" but yet is very cold, and unemotional. The only difference is their political viewpoint.

Next is the lone survivor style of living Ala Bill, which is essentially learning to completely cut yourself off from everyone and be totally independent. This of course leads you to becoming bit of an oddball and the most detached as a human.

Following that are the lawless bandits, with their survival of the fittest mentality most prominently shown with David's crew. Here, the strong survive and there are no limits with regards to morality, you do WHATEVER you have to in order to survive even if that means killing and eating other humans or ambushing wandering "tourists."

Then you have Tommy's community, the one beacon of hope which seems the most similar to pre-infection society. There are families who protect one another and try their best to remain self-sufficient. Notice that there are no assigned work posts, people do what they have the skills to do and will best support the community. There is a scene before you enter the power-plant where Tommy's wife tells one of the workers to go home to his family and he volunteers to stay to see the job done. This is a powerful scene as it directly contrasts pretty much all of the communities we have interacted with up until this point and you understand that this community is part of one big caring family, a community built on love, trust and understanding, not simply a mutual need to survive.

Tommy's community is an important milestone in the game because it shows that humanity is still capable of building and maintaining stable communities without casting off their morality in the process. Despite all the propaganda and good talk that the Fireflies espouse we see no reflections of this type of behavior from them. The Fireflies, much like the Government, cling to old world ideals, the tattered American flag displayed prominently in the QZ at the beginning of the game brings this fact home. While these ideals of America, democracy, and supposed freedom are all good these groups are so enamored by these political ideals they fail to realize that their organization is empty at the core and have little understanding what these ideals truly mean. The Fireflies are not keen on sharing resources, building families, etc. they are devoted to one cause, the restoration of old world society, and those not part of this cause should stand aside, afterall in the end they will thank them for their efforts. However, these groups fail to realize that society has moved beyond these old structures and have learned to adapt and thrive in this world without them.

You see, it's communities like Tommy's that will save humanity in the end, not simply a cure, which in the hands of the Fireflies would likely lead to more conflict as they seek to impose their ideals on everyone.

Joel's Character Arc, The End Choice, and the Re-birth of a Father

Now that we have discussed all of these ancillary themes we can get to the heart of the story, the evolution of the character of Joel. As I stated in the beginning, some people seem to view Joel as a selfish-psychopath throughout the entire game, now while I can understand disagreeing with his end choice, to state that he is that kind of character from start to finish is just plain wrong and ignores his entire arc. So let's discuss Joel, a man who is stripped of all his humanity by the beginning of the game and has done terrible deeds for the sake of survival, and then enters Ellie who changes his life.

Joel's entire journey with Ellie is an observation of an individual learning to regain their humanity and in the end for Joel learn to become a father again. Like I said before, Joel is very much an emotionless zombie at the start but through his interactions with Ellie he learns to open up and love again. By the end of the game he understands that there is more to life than simply surviving and that certain things shouldn't be sacrificed in order to survive. So now we get to the end choice we're Joel is told essentially that the ends justify the means and that "the greater good" is being served by letting Ellie die. Now that is just the wrong thing to say to Joel, we the player have been exposed to this logic throughout the game and observed its effects. But to Joel, it's even more personal to him as allowing Ellie to die "for the greater good" puts him on the same level as the soldier who killed his daughter at the beginning of the game. At this point, simply surviving is not the answer to him and he reasons that if you have to lose your humanity to save it, then its not worth it. So he saves Ellie unwilling to sacrifice her to possibly "save" all of humanity.

But Joel's character arc goes even deeper because at the same time he is learning to become a human again he is also learning to become a father again. Throughout the game he becomes more and more of a father figure to Ellie, at first he is simply a caretaker delivering a package, cold, and unemotional. However, he begins to become more protective of her, there are the moments he tells her to look away from dead bodies, and at first refuses to give her a gun in some sort of fruitless attempt to preserve some form of "innocence" in her in this new world. Eventually, by the end, he gives Ellie the outward emotional feelings she craves becoming one step closer to becoming her new father. However, there are two actions at the end of the game that he must do to complete this arc.

The first action he takes is by rescuing Ellie, literally taking the choice of her sacrifice out of her hands. He could have woken her up at some point and asked her what she wanted to do, but had he not, it wouldn't be a stretch to assume that Ellie would agree to this kind of action. However, by taking the choice completely out of her hands he further assumes the role of her father, any good parent routinely takes choices out of the hands of their children who they feel are ill equipped to make such choices at the time. Ellie, at just 14 years old, is definitely not equipped to handle a decision concerning her life and the possible fate of the entire human race. Joel assuming the role of the parent understands this and determines that Ellie deserves her own chance at life, its in her best interests in his view even if she may not agree at the moment.

But, it is not until the final moment of the game that Joel truly ascends to the role of Ellie's father and Ellie herself accepts her role as the daughter, all of it captured in one beautiful lie. The lie at the end of the game is not "bad" it is beautiful and carefully wraps up the relationship between these two characters. Joel in order to fully assume the role of the father has to be able to lie to Ellie. At no point prior to this moment in the game did Joel ever truly lie to Ellie, he always tells her the truth even if the truth is ugly and hard. But in order to be an effective parent you have to lie to your children, even when they too know that you are lying. For example something as simple as a parent saying "everything will be okay" is a classic lie, told a million times to children even when they both know that things won't be okay. But, for a child hearing this expression still reassures them even though they know it's a lie. At the end, Ellie knows that Joel is lying to her but she needs to hear the lie even though she knows it isnt true. Lying to Ellie is the most compassionate and loving act that a character can do to her.

Let's take a moment and contrast Joel with Marlene, a character who has known Ellie all her life and essentially raised her. Yet, despite all this we see know evidence that Ellie sees Marlene as a sort of motherly/loving figure. She may have provided her with a home, food, and safety but it's hard to see Marlene showing her any sort of outward emotional love. And Marlene would most certaintly never lie to Ellie to protect her.

At the end, Ellie's question is an important step, Ellie would not have asked Joel the question if she knew he was going to tell the truth, that is what is so great about it. It in essence is a final test from her before she truly accepts Joel as her caretaker. She needs to believe the lie, and she needs to know that Joel is willing to lie to protect her. This simple act eternally bonds the two characters together and they are now ready to begin their new life together as a Father and Daughter.

Conclusion and Some Extra Stuff

So in the end that is my interpretation of The Last of Us, it s by no means the one true, correct interpretation but simply my own musings. At the end of the day the game is essentially asking you how much of your humanity are you willing to sacrifice to save it.

That said, I do wanna briefly address some concerns I have over weird opposing viewpoints, mainly, that Joel is a despicable psychopath from start to end. As I said, you can certainly make that argument going by his end choice, but before the ending Joel never kills anyone who doesnt attack you first or plans on killing you on first sight. And in fact for a good amount of combat situations in the game you can simply sneak right by and not engage in any action. To call Joel a monster because he kills people that you specifically tell him to kill makes little sense. But hey, that's just my two cents.