In case you clicked on this and haven't finished playing The Last of Us yet, be warned that I'm going to spoil the ending in the next paragraph so don't say you haven't been warned.
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Alright, I've just finished playing The Last of Us for the first time (I know I'm waaaay late) and the events at the end gave me pause. As you know, when Joel reaches St-Mary's hospital, he wakes up to find out Ellie is about to undergo surgery in order for the Fireflies to be able to engineer a vaccine for the infected. The catch is that the surgery will be lethal to Ellie so Joel does what he does best and kills everyone to save Ellie.
That's the part where I'm not sure I would have done the same. I actually stood in the operating room and walked up to the surgeon hoping he'd cut me down (but in the end he took some shotgun to the face). I understand the strong bond that was formed between Joel and Ellie during the year or so they travelled together. I know he sees her as a daughter but if you have the chance to save the entire human race wouldn't make the excruciating hard choice of letting her go?
This discussion started on my wall (which I will delete since someone might stumble on some spoilers by accident) and Hynad brought a very valid question, asking me if I was a father. Since I am not, I can only imagine how strong the parent-child bond is. I tried substituting Ellie for my husband in this scenario and it does make the decision a whole lot harder and I bet it's a thousand times worst with your own child.
On the other hand, the world Joel and Ellie are living in is cruel as unforgiving. They could walk down a street the next day and Ellie could get killed by a clicker and then Joel robbed the human race of a cure for the infection for absolutely nothing.
In the end I'm still not sure what I'd choose in a situation like this (I certainly never want to have that kind of decision to make) but I thought the matter could make for an interesting discussion.
Would you follow Spocks' advice that "the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few" or would you save the person that's the most dear to you?
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