10 Video Game Villains We WANTED To Win
10. Marlene - The Last Of Us
One of the greatest things about The Last of Us is its prevailing sense of moral ambiguity, cemented by the game's ending, where players are left to ponder whether or not protagonist Joel did the right thing.
The game concludes with Joel shooting his way through a hospital in order to "save" Ellie from having her immune brain experimented upon, which would've resulted in her death but could've also led to a cure for the infection plaguing humanity.
The final person standing in Joel's way is Marlene, the leader of the Fireflies, whose logic is absolutely sound and who Joel murders in cold blood in the final moments of the game.
Though there was admittedly no guarantee that Marlene's experiment would've netted a cure, it's easy to appreciate the utilitarian thinking in sacrificing one immune person for the potential salvation of humanity.
Joel, meanwhile, was blinded by the loss of his own daughter at the start of the game, and selfishly put Marlene down like a dog so he could maintain his own surrogate-father-daughter relationship with Ellie.
Even if you agree with what Joel did, how can you not at least somewhat sympathise with Marlene's desire to find a cure?