1. The Last Of Us
We all thought we knew exactly where The Last of Us was going. A perfectly conventional ending was projected from the very start. Joel and Ellie start off as uneasy companions, but theyre going to grow on each other, and soon after that, Joel will become a surrogate father to Ellie. Eventually, theyll part ways, one of them might even die. But theyll both have changed as characters, for the better. Joel will finally have accepted his real daughters death. And Ellie, being immune to the zombie-like infection that plagues this world, will help the Fireflies find a cure. This ending could have been so simple, so easy. Thankfully, Naughty Dog did things the hard way and gave us the best video game ending of all time. Many people compare the ending of The Last of Us to the other polarizing endings, like Inception or The Sopranos. I disagree, because as far as endings go, TLoU is far superior. The Last of Us didnt have an ambiguous ending, as many claim, because we know exactly what happened. Some character motivations are left to interpretation, but the events that make up the games finale are made unsettlingly clear. Rather than let Ellie be killed by the Fireflies so they can develop a cure, Joel murders the doctors operating on her and flees with the girl. When hes confronted by Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, Joel kills her to ensure his and Ellies safety. However, its later revealed that Ellie was more than ready to give her life for the greater good. Joel lies to her and says that the Fireflies gave up on finding a cure, and when she asks if hes lying, he swears that hes telling the truth. Conflicted and terrified, Ellie can only mutter one uneasy word: okay. Credits roll. For months, the internet has been debating about this ending, with one half sympathising with Joels actions, and the other half condemning him as a selfish monster. And the best part is that neither side is wrong. As the game progresses, Joel becomes understandably misanthropic. It wasnt an infected zombie that killed his daughter, it was just a man. And it was just a man who kidnapped and attempted to rape Ellie. All these events lead to Joels rampage at the end of the game. Ellie is now the only thing that matter to him, fellow man be damned. They had their chance and blew it. The scary part is that Joel is all Ellie has, too. Everything else has been taken away, her family, her friends, her innocence. The difference is that she is still willing to sacrifice her life for mankind, because she still has faith in people. But her chance to help the world is taken from her, and another opportunity probably wont come along, at least not while Joels around. Whether she believes Joels lie or not isnt important. Whats important is that she accepts the lie, therefore accepting the potential damnation of the human race. The last of us, indeed.
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