Where does The Last of Us stand among the postapocalyptic genre?
It’s a masterpiece.
This is the world after the end.
The man looks down at the child, the dirty face and sad eyes, tired.
Only yesterday more bodies.
Bad men waiting in the expanse of the wasteland.
Monsters crawling out of the fires.
Theyre ready to steal, to kill.
The man must protect the child.
If only for a little while longer.
And winter is coming.
Often it feels like these two travellers are the last hope for goodness in the world.
Not that a family under fire in a postapocalyptic world is a new feat for video game narratives.
Ellies the only human on record anyways that is immune to the virus.
This makes her the most important human left on Earth, and precious cargo for Joel.
Joel would protect Ellie not only from physical harm, but from the truth that might break her spirit.
Knowingly, she allows Joel to have this one victory.
For once, he kept someone safe from the ugliness of the world.
And Joel means well, after all.
Giving up means that you surrender to your fate, that there is nothing left to go home to.
Its not the bomb or the zombies or the virus that kills off humanity.
People always survive the end of the world in fiction.
Many of the most famous works of postapocalyptic fiction have an overwhelming preoccupation with death.
The Last of Usseems to be about something completely different.
Its not as preoccupied with death as it is with life.
Do we deserve a second chance?
You see a convergence between man and nature, as they clash over and over throughout the game.
One section of the game, Ellies hunting sequence, is pivotal in telling this story.
One gets the sense of mans renewed connection to the earth, as Ellie slowly learns how to hunt.
On the surface, this is still the fight for survival.
If the survivors dont find something to eat, theyre going to die.
Ellie symbolizes mankinds refusal to die.
Instead, it adapts and continues to live.
The protagonists of postapocalyptic fiction are faced with this dilemma.
To continue to believe in the good amidst all the bad is what keeps humanity going.
The truth is there is no good side.
But to get to survive, someone has to carry the hope.
Someone has to carry the fire.
