The ending of The Last of Us

The ending of The Last of Us

By now I expect most people who are interested in playing The Last of Us. If you haven't go do it. I'm going to be talking about the ending for The Last of Us...



*spoilers*



*seriously spoilers*



For me, the ending was in character with the main protagonist in the game, Joel. In the last hour or so he is given the choice to find a cure for the infection that has decimated the human population, which will kill Ellie in the process. The other option is to shoot your way out, save Ellie, and not find a cure for the disease. Joel chooses to save her.

A lot of what has been written about the ending has been negative. Talk about it not giving the player the choice to save mankind or save Ellie, the girl you have been protecting since the start of the game (about a year in the games timeline). People point to the story and try to argue that Joel wouldn't have killed the Fireflies or the civilian characters, choosing to save mankind instead of the sidekick. While most of what we see Joel do throughout the game is morally good, the game hints at Joel's darker past.

At the start of the game, Joel and his daughter Sarah are escaping from the outbreak. Towards the end of this opening segment of the game, Sarah is shot and killed by a soldier trying to keep infected civilians from escaping what looks to be a forced quarantine zone. 

When the player first encounters bandits in the game, Joel mentions that he may have killed and robbed innocent people. He is a ruthless killer and other non-playable characters are often heard commenting on his brutality. He does anything to survive. If this means killing innocent people, then it means killing innocent people. If it means shooting your way out of a hospital to save someone you love, then that's what he will do. You're just along for the ride.