The Last of Us 2: Revenge, Redemption, and Regret in the Other Mushroom Kingdom

    THE LAST OF US 2 is a controversial game to say the least. I already did a review for Grimdark Magazine and gave it a nine out of ten. So, you can guess that I have a genuinely high opinion of the subject. However, it is a game that is controversial for a reason. People develop parasocial relationships with fictional characters and this game takes advantage of that to maximum effect. Because I've already reviewed the game in basic, this will discuss more detailed elements of the plot. So there will be SPOILERS ahoy and this shall be your last warning.

    The premise of the game is simple: Ellie and Joel are living a idyllic life in Jackson after the traumatizing events of the first game. Ellie is the only known person immune to the cordyceps infection and the terrorist-scientist group known as the Fireflies planned to chop her up in order to manufacture a vaccine. Joel killed all the Fireflies and lied to Ellie about what he did. Ellie has held it against him ever since. Unfortunately, Ellie never gets a chance to reconcile with Joel because he's promptly murdered by a group of teenagers that are related to the Fireflies. Ellie proceeds to get her guns together and go on a mission of revenge but is her cause justified?

Joel made his choice and a lot of people agreed with it.

       Revenge is one of the most well-used, perhaps overused, plotlines in fiction. Virtually all angles it can be examined have been examined. There's John Wick who simultaneously wants to avenge his dog as well as falls into the old pattern of murder-for-hire because it's something familiar. There's Lincoln Clay who murders hundreds of Italian gangsters while debating whether he's doing it for justice or the opportunity to become the new boss of New Bordeaux. Aiden Pearce wants to track down who killed his niece while ignoring that the person most responsible for his death is arguably himself. Dishonored is all about revenge with the caveat that you can sentence them to fates even worse than death by sparing them.

    The Last of Us Part II's take on revenge is very different in that it doesn't go with the standard take of making your revenge cathartic. It also doesn't even make revenge a bit good and a bit bad. Lincoln Clay can spare a lot of the mobsters he fights and only kill his most direct targets. Aiden Pearce can end up sparing the hitman who directly killed his niece. Corvo Attano canonically spares Daud's life while slaghtering the rest of them. The Last of Us Part II has you carve your way through hundreds of soldiers, only to end up losing more people you care about and finally realizing you don't care about revenge in the end.

    I don't mind this story in the slightest since one of my favorite movies if THE TRUE GRIT remake by the Coen Brothers. The premise of that movie is they took a revenge movie and proceeded to make it horrific. The consequences to Mattie Ross in that movie are horrific, resulting in her losing her friends as well as her arm. Perhaps the big difference is the fact that Mattie genuinely seems happy with her choice, no matter the cost, while Ellie clearly wishes she never went on her revenge spree at all. I'd argue that Abby suffers every bit as much since she loses her friends, faction, and gets crucified like Conan. Worse, ends up rescued by someone who actually saved her just to kinda kill her but doesn't even want to do that either.

    It also reminds me strongly of Kurosawa's RASHOMON and I wouldn't be surprised if that was an influence. Basically, that movie is all about switching perspectives on events and how people present as well as view themselves. The big twist of Rashomon is that virtually everyone in the story turns out to be a coward and a fool with no dignity. They all just lie about what they did and what they wanted to make themselves look better. Abby and Ellie go through the motions of revenge but they also try to "heroically" spare each other, only for that to fail because their actions have made both even more pissed off at one another. Mercy doesn't have the same effect it does in Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings.
 

I don't blame Ellie for choosing revenge over love.

    Oddly, I love this story BECAUSE it's dirty, messy, and grimdark. One of the most unsatisfying narratives that I ever experienced was ASSASSINS CREED V. It was attempting to recapture the lightning in a bottle that was Ezio Auditore's revenge quest against the Borgia family. However, the ending of Arno's quest for revenge ends on a nasty note where an important NPC dies killing the main bad.

    She happily sacrificed her life to kill her father's murderer and reassures Arno via posthumous letter that it was for the best. Here, both Ellie and Abby's father figures both wanted them to live happy lives--because they're loving parents. Their quest for revenge is in direct contradiction to what their fathers would have wanted for them because it brings nothing but grief. Both Abby and Ellie lose more friends as well as their places in society because of their actions.

    I don't think the ending is particularly bad either but I also like the uncertainty to it. Ellie has sacrificed her relationship with Dina and a child they could raise together for revenge. She's also been maimed and can no longer play the guitar. I think she's achieved closure, though, and can return to Jackson to make a new life for herself. Abby has lost her friends, faction, and been crucified but has a friend she's protected. She's also got place that might take her in if they still exist. Either of them could end up the protagonist of The Last of Us Part III and I'd be satisfied with that. Indeed, I'm eager to see who the protagonist of the upcoming DLC is and hope they start working on the next game soon.

The world is tired of humanity's shit.

    Now for the question of whether I think they should have killed Joel. I think that's a question built around personal attachment. Holy hell, did I hate Burial at Sea for Bioshock: Infinite. However, I should point out that Joel was already in his early fifties in The Last of Us. Any adventures he further had would have been in Old Snake territory. I also think Joel, of all people, knew he had it coming for all the terrible things he did during the apocalypse. He was a former Hunter and only cared to make sure Ellie lived versus himself. He, unlike Ellie, probably wouldn't have held it against Abby for killing him.

    Would I have done the same thing for this game? No, speaking as a writer I probably would have started the game with Abby rather than Ellie. I would have made her escape as a child from the Firefly facility and let the players know that Joel is her target. I also would have made Joel die as a boss battle because I think it would have gone over better. Then I would have switched to Ellie and made the whole thing much more ambiguous. Give us an entire half of the game with Abby and her friends before you make us hunt her. I also think that Ellie's girlfriend doesn't really add anything to the story and the romance subplot is kind of a plot tumor that distracts from the much more interesting relationship between Abby vs. Ellie.

My .02.