Could you stop trying to demonize people who disagree with your sense of morality in a video game? If you want to keep at it then we can work out how you're wrong on this in terms of morality.

It's not heavily focused but based on this rash decision and multiple call outs to the fire flies being hunted down in boston and even marlene losing a sizable group from her travel to the hospital, it's kinda clear that they are desperate. They've sacrificed so much and probably have done terrible, villainous things. The tapes that marlene leaves behind in the last level show how tired and worn out she is from being the leader of the fire flies and how they are becoming more desperate and skeptical.

I assume they did not want to risk the chance of ellie backing out from the procedure. It's essentially all they had to their name after all their loss. It kinda makes joel's decision more poignant, to me anyways. Are these people worth saving or the world as a whole? Will the cure actually bring peace or are we too far gone? Obviously, he wasn't thinking that far ahead during the saving of ellie but yeah.

He "forced his will upon her" to SAVE her. The fireflies and others that wouldn't give a damn about a lone child in that apocalyptic world would have ALSO forced their will upon her to MURDER her...

And that difference is EVERYTHING to me, it's a whole universe of difference to me.

To answer your question: NO I won't stop. Murdering a child is wrong no matter what.

And if you wish to question my "moral" decisions, by all means go ahead. I'd love to hear your opinion on my wrongs about respecting a child's life, no matter what.

But selfish is the name of the game in such an apocalyptic world. If you go "Jesus" in such a world and come to people spreading your arms with a message of love, you will end up dead faster than an acute meningitis could kill you.

Also, Joel's past is the reason why he is like he is. He was never meant to be this great guy that spreads love and whatnot. He was meant to be a survivor in a tough world of murderers and survivalists.

The whole point of the game was to show us a Joel that changes and learns to love one person for real. She was just cargo at first and he was paid to take that cargo from point A to point B, period. If he's the asshole you say then that cargo should have been just cargo from beginning to end instead of becoming a person that he cares about.

Your last line reveals a subconscious psychological reality that applies to almost everybody sadly and makes REAL people actually worse than Joel. Like you say yourself IF Ellie was your daughter... implying if she is NOT your daughter, fuck her, let her die, cash in the money from the Fireflies and off you go... At least Joel did not fall that low still being the asshole that he was before meeting Ellie.

I have never brought the tapes into the discussion, either on here or on other forums, and that's because I don't see them as a great part of the narrative arc, or to put it another way, as the motivator for the protagonist. The reason is, as a player (the player being 'Joel' without any ambiguity due to the restraints put upon the narrative) you can pass those by. Therefore, the relevant arc can only been construed from everything unavoidable. 

You also have to bear in mind -- and I know I've said this so many times now -- that it isn't a 'decision'. Joel isn't deciding, he's reacting. The reaction is instinctive and that of a Father. To attribute 'decision' (requiring choice) to Joel at the point of rescue is to completely dispose of the painstaking detail Neil and his team put into fleshing out the characteristics and developing personalities of both Joel and Ellie. It's an insult to the heart of the narrative to broaden it beyond it's well crafted boundaries. 

The clear and unequivocal conclusion Neil wanted the player to focus on was the morality of lying and whether that was justified or not. That's where the interesting discussion is. Those who argue beyond the boundaries of narrative, for ('we don't know if Ellie would have been the cure anyway') and against (those who think him not saving the world is selfish) are missing the whole point of the story. Some people may think it's 'deep' to consider that aspect but it's not, it's cliqued, which I'd suggest is one of the reasons Neil decided to craft the narrative to lead to the question about the lie and the ambiguity of the final word 'OK'. 

Actually, the name of the game is The Last of Us. 

Ellie is not a child and she's not a daughter to the MC. Even if everyone accepts that she's a child, she's killed plenty of people so she's not innocent by any measurement. Saving her is the selfish choice in that scenario. Joel chose one girl over a potential reversal of humankind's likely extinction because of his bond with her and not getting past losing his daughter. Joel possibly sacrificed everyone for her. Not because she was a young teenager/kid or a woman but because he cared for her and didn't want to lose her.

Evil is not a synonym for something you don't like. It's inherently selfishness at extreme levels. Basically, the more harm you cause or harm you're willing to cause to others in pursuit of your interests, the more evil you are. There's alot of greyness involved. Morality is not black or white.  Killing a kid in every single possible situation is not evil. Saving a kid no matter what is not absolutely a good or righteous act no matter what. There's alot of grey. I do understand the other side of this and I don't see anyone as evil.

I think that you really agree with the vaccine people's morality and you're calling everyone evil to muddy your own misgivings about choosing Ellie over humanity.

.... holy... what? You just made that completely up.

Implying... man you should stop insulting people around here

I would go with the vaccine. I understand Joel's reasons for doing what he did but he clearly was selfish. But while i found his decision to do so understandable, what really bothered mw more was the decision to kill everyone else in cold blood. That rather than the decision to sve Ellie was his moat villainaous moment and i thought he stepped over a line.

No doubt his decision to do so will have an effect in TLOU2.