How HBO’s The Final of Us Already Foreshadowed the Second Recreation

Mazin then goes on to speak in regards to the parallels between this scene and an earlier scene with Joel and his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), saying “Probably the most outstanding factor about that second is that when Ellie watches him beating a person to demise, she is activated. Earlier within the episode, when Sarah see him killing this outdated girl who’s contaminated who he has to kill, she cries. Ellie doesn’t cry. Ellie likes it, she likes the concept of somebody defending her like that, and he or she likes the concept of that man being punished. And that is the place you start to see the issue, but in addition the deliciousness of the pairing. These two are supposed to be collectively, however look out.”

Whereas Ellie has discovered easy methods to defend and maintain herself, she has additionally grown up with out parental figures in her life or actually any adults that she will be able to actually depend on. Positive, Marlene (Merle Dandridge) has finished her greatest to be careful for her when she’s not making an attempt to run the Fireflies, however that is possible the primary time that Ellie has had an grownup go to such intensive and violent lengths to guard her. Watching Joel in that second appears to fill a void that she’s been lacking in her life, however it additionally begins to bolster the concept inside each of them that this can be a wholesome technique to categorical love.  

The story of The Final of Us Half II online game can’t exist with out the concept standing up to your family members by violence is the one technique to present how a lot you care on this world. Joel’s determination to avoid wasting Ellie on the finish of Half I doesn’t come with out its penalties. After studying that Ellie has to die to ensure that a vaccine to be created, Joel does no matter it takes to cease the Fireflies from killing her – together with killing the one identified physician able to creating the vaccine.

After Ellie finds out in Half II that Joel lied to her about what occurred within the hospital, their relationship turns into barely strained. Nevertheless, after Joel dies violently by the hands of the physician’s daughter not lengthy into the sport, Ellie decides that the one path ahead is to enact her personal revenge on Abby. Simply as this model of Joel within the HBO sequence has punished the guard for threatening her, she now has to punish Abby and everybody she cares about for taking Joel away from her. Despite the fact that she is aware of that Joel wasn’t harmless, Ellie additionally is aware of that Joel has finished no matter he needed to to guard her – so it’s solely proper that she does the identical. 

This cycle of violence is a part of what makes each of those video games so compelling – the concept we’re all of the heroes of our personal story, doing no matter it takes to guard those we love. Having each Abby and Ellie as playable characters and protagonists in Half II additional emphasizes this, and I hope we get to see their story translated into the sequence. Figuring out that Mazin and Druckmann are already subtly foreshadowing the violent nature of Ellie within the second recreation is extra than simply an Easter egg for followers, it’s essential character constructing that exhibits simply how a lot these two perceive this world and the characters inside it.