I know this subreddit it's for The Last of Us Part 2 only, but I realised the other subreddit is too much toxic and the people in this one are more peaceful, nice and respectful, so sorry for that, I hope I don't get banned or something
Also sorry for my bad English, an Brazilian, so English ain't my first language, feel free to correct me.
One of the most memorable moments from The Last of Us it's the Giraffe scene. I'll always remember this scene because it's really beutiful, well crafted and meaningful - after so many brutal and dark moments you had on the winter sequence the game let's you take a break from all that pain and apreciate the beuty of the nature.
But one thing i'va notice from the first time i watched this cutscene it's Joel reaction after he talks to Ellie. Instead of looking to her as she walks always after declining his offer to back to Jackson and forget about the cure, Joel looks at the giraffes leaving the area.
That kept me intrigued. Why?
When i got my PS4 back in the ending of 2016, it came with Uncharted 4. It was my first experience with Naughty Dog (although I'm pretty sure I played crash in ps1, or I'm having fake flashbacks) since I had a Xbox during that generation. It blew my mind the amazing action set pieces and the grafics, the voice acting (which led me to want to understand more about the amazing world of voice acting and learn the importance of it in gaming). But what I most liked was the attention to details that Naughty Dog had. Evey corner I looked had a detail. On cloths, textures, walls, guns, everything had details.
I knew about The Last of Us, bur haven't played so I thought it was just another overestimated game.
Then I decide to pay a PSN+ in the ending of 2019, and guess what game was available to Plus members? The Last of Us.
I played the game. I enjoyed the game. I understood the game. I loved the game.
I'm not a man that cries a lot, but almost dropped a tear in Sara's death. When Tommy and Joel reunited I got emotioned. I got sad when Joel fought Ellie. I got worried when he got hurt in Colorado and when we didn't solve Ellie after he leaved the Fireflies hospital.
And boy, that game had details. From the cutscenes, to cenarios and even in optional dialogue. Everything was perfect.
Then I started to learn everything I could about The Last of Us and Naughty Dog. And I realised that they always where a company that likes details.
So, that thing stocked in my mind: Why Joel looked at the giraffes???
I solve a video by Nick Eh 30 that talked about facts we didn't knew about The Last of Us [https://youtu.be/RDaE_uK0MQU]. The video points about the fact that the giraffes don't appear only in Salt Lake City but through the entire game, and mostly, representing child.
As I repeated my playthrough of the game I payed attention to this fact. And indeed the giraffes appear a lot.yed attention to this fact. And indeed the giraffes appear a lot.
In order of appearance:
1- Sarah's beedroim in Texas
2- Child toy in Boston
3- Picture frame in Bill's Town
4- Decoration in Pittsburgh
5- Child toy in Pittsburgh
6- Child toy in Jackson
7- Wallpaper and chos toy in Salt Lake City
But I realised that the giraffes ain't the only animals in the game.
Animals appear also in:
1- Wild dogs in Pittsburgh
2- Buckley in Jackson
3- Monkeys in Colorado
4- Bunny in Colorado
I also watched the documentary"Grounded - The Making of The Last of Us", and it shows that the team always wanted to put a scene with animals. So, I puted all together - The giraffes many appearances, the other animals, Naughty Dog attention to details - I realised that the Giraffes are a symbol.
To explain better. Neil Druckman (I'm sure everyone in this subreddit knows who he is) has a fixation with writing stories with "themes". The first The Last of Us ws written based on the theme "The unconditional love of a parent to his child". The plot of Uncharted 4 surrounds the theme of "How to deal with the fact you need to stop doing something you love" (couldn't find better words to describe English ain't my first language, fell free to correct me) and The Last of Us Part 2 is based on the theme of "The circle of violance generated by revenge". With that in mind, is easy to see that through the hole game you find mataphors, symbols, representations or "metacommentaries" about the theme of unconditional love of a parent and his child and the subthemes (right to take a live to save someone you love/dealing with grief/right to kill), and it's no different with the giraffes.
So the giraffes are a simbol or a representation that tells something about the themes of the game. But what do they represent?
• Giraffes, Giraffes and more Giraffe
The scene where we interest with the giraffes makes Joel talk to Ellie about the cure and also make him change his mind. So it has something to do with "Ellie" and the "Cure".
Like I said the giraffes appearances trough the game are always related to child. What's the most important and distinct characteristics of child's? The "Innocence".
But, this scene and one of the other appearances of the giraffes (the picture frame with a picture of 2 giraffes) also resemble the condition of "Peace" (the picture frame is in a abandoned house you find that is a safe place where you can rest and also it's where Ellie tried to make peace with you for Tess's death; the one in Salt Lake City also I'd in a quiet and peaceful place that gives you a feeling of happiness and also makes Ellie happy and secure enough to talk to you again and forget about the winter episode).
So we can assume that the Giraffes are a representation of "Peaceful Innocence", such as a child has.
But what that has to do with Ellie or her situation?
• The Last of Us - but who is us??
The title of the game also has a symbolical meaning. It's not literal or it would mean that Ellie and Joel are the last humans alive. No not that, the world it's full of other people that even live in communities. So, it must have a symbolical meaning.
In the scene with the giraffes in Salt Lake City one of the things it shows, and the one most people instantly get it's that: "the nature is way better without the human interference". That made a lot of people theorize that Joel decided it's not worth to save the human race cause of that. I believe they're partially right. Why?
Let's hold that question for a second and take a look at all the other animals appearances trough the game.
All of them represent the same thing than the Giraffes. Why fnst we say that? The monkeys in Colorado, bunny in the Winter sequence, Buckley the dog in Tommy's hidroeletric powerplant (which was named after Troy Baker's dog that died before they started shooting) and even the wild dogs in Pittsburgh all act in the same way; with a peaceful Innocence.
-> Although Joel believes that someone is trying to ambush him in the university's lab it's just monkeys acting normaly, and they don't even attack him although his entering and interfering in their habitat.
-> Although Tommy's community in Jackson needed a watch dog, he said that Buckley isn't a good watch dog, meaning his docile and mema no harmn. Even when Joel 5ries to pet him, a complete stranger, he doesn't do anything.
-> The bunny Ellie kills to get food in winter doesn't even know what hited him. He was innocently and peacifuly walking by (such as the deer that only runs away).
-> Although Joel warns Ellie to stay way from the wild dogs in Pittsburgh, the dogs doesn't even try to attack them. They're just playing and them run away as you get closer.
So we can say the all the animals that appear in the game represent "peaceful Innocence".
So let's back to Ellie and joel. What that has to do with them?
Joel need sto take Ellie to the Fireflies to make a cure. But as they walk toeugh Salt Lake City they meet a group of Giraffes passing by peaceful and innocently feeding rehmselvs of the leaves. They mean no harmn and don't even flinch when Joel and Ellie pet them. As Joel look to them fading away and realizing something it's different in Ellie, he tries to talk her trough giving up on the hole cure plan. Why?
Joel realized humanity it's not worth saving cause he solve how the nature it's better, which mean the human beings are a horrible speacies. Yes.
But most important of that: Joel realized that Ellie had something special - not her immunity to the virus, no, that's also symbolic. Joel realized that Ellie, different of everyone else, had something, a characteristic lost by mankind a long ago: "humanity". What am I taking about? Try to keep up.
• A Exhortation in favor of Innocence
Everyone Joel had met in this 20 years after the outbreak had showed no sign of humanity. Everyone Reyes to kill those who appear in their way, being them someone who mean harmn or not. David an his group kills and eats his victims. The Fireflies don't hesitate in killing at first sight or shooting when someone isn't on their side. The hunters kills innocent victims by ambushing them with deception skills. Even Tommy and his group, who are good people, only cared ofr themselves and not even wanted to know about a possibility of a cure (Tommy only accepted to take Ellie to the Fireflies because he realized Joel was starting to love her like a daughter).
But, Ellie it's different.
When you are arriving the cpsitol building in Boston, Ellie thanked Joel and Tess for protecting and taking we to the Fireflies safe, showing gratitude even tough they're being paid to do that.
Although she and Bill got wrangled up at some point, all she wanted was to help - although she could just lay back and watch them she really wanted to help them to survive.
When they met Henry and Sam she said her name with no hesitation and trusted them and stoped Joel from killing them because they saved her. She also stoked a toy for Sam so eh could have some fun.
Even feeling something was wrong with David, she trusted him and decide to give him a chance.
Also, despite being born in that horrible world, and be dealing and seeing horrible people doing horrifying things, she's always shocked with Joel's excessive brutality towards those monsters.
When Joel looked to those giraffes and looked back to Ellie semblance, he solve in her eyes that she had a very special characteristic "Peaceful Innocence". He understood that she was special not because she was immune to the cordyceps, but because she was immune to that world, to the people in that world and the bestly characteristics and actions. Joel realised that the animals acted more like humans then the humans, whom have acting like animals, and that Ellie acted like a human not a animal.
• We neee to talk about Sarah...
The game begins with the outbreak day, where we are presented to the protagonist, Joel, and also we learn that int hst day he lost his daughter and with her, a part of him was lost. But, Sarah didn't died for a infected, did she? No, she died for a human being in full control of his actions.
From that day on, Joel lost his faith in humanity. And in that moment when he realized Ellie had a sign of humanity, he knew, she needed to be protected by those who wanted to abuse her and take that from her. From those who doesn't understand what precious teiar she has. She need to bre prorect by the animals that lived in that world - like a shepherd protected the a Shep from the Wolf.
• Dealing with Grief
Joel passed the last 20 years mourning Sarah's death. But, as he got more attached to Ellie, and started to leave her as his daughter, he found his reason "to keep fighting for".
The advice Joel gives to Ellie in the ending cutscenes is something he realised after that, that you can't keep running away from your past, you need to accept it and make peace with it, then, only then, you'll be free from it and enable to find a reason to live.
Joel found his reason to live, his goal: be a father. Not for his biological daugh4er, but by the daughter he chooses to love and that choose him.
When Joel and Tess are arguing about if they need to move on and take Ellie to the Fireflies, Joel's say this is bullshit and their waisting their time and Tess is smarter than this she replied: "We're shitty people Joel, it's been like that for a long time". Joel says "they're survivors". Tess days that "this is teir chance to..." And before she can continue he said it's over. Tess understood she passed all these years just existing, not living like some like to say. She lives with only one goal in mind survive - in other words she lives like a animal.
For Joel, that was ok cause he didn't need a girl, cusse for him, life didn't mattered anymore.
But, as Joel started to love Ellie, he understood that that wasn't enough. He learned he need to deal with his grief to be a better father to Ellie, to love her unconditionally.
• "Taking a live to save someone more important to you", "the right to kill", and "Goals"
When Sarah died, the person who killed her way only following orders, orders given by someone who tough only on protecting the civilians, the nation, but most important, he was saving someone more inpportant to him someone he loved - himself.
Same thing with with the hunters, David and the fireflyes and even Tommy. They all tough primarily in themselves and their families.
Tommy even states he has a cause, a family,and they have others to care for.
Although it's important to care for those you love, Joel realized they wasn't thinking actually for their love ones, in protecting them, in what's good to them, but what's good for themselvs. Don't take me wrong, I love Tommy, he's a amazing character, but he didn't even thinked about having a cure that could save his people and free them from their life. If we pay attention, we can see Tommy went trough a Loth to find a cause to fight for. And eh couldn't loose that, he didn't wanted his efforts to he in vain.
When Joel for to the Fireflies everyone knows what happened. He knew that he couldn't let his daughter died, he knew he couldn't let the last of them, the last of humans died for animals in vain.
Joel understood that you need to have a balance between your caused and people. Tommy cared more for himself and his community, he didn't thinked about others around the world or stop the infection. Same with the hunters or David or bill or the Fireflies - who cared so much for their cause they only thought about making a cure at all costs.
Joel took in consideration not only the fact he wouldn't e enable to handle a lost of another daughrer, but thstellie needed to develop her humanity even more. He knew that after what happened with David, she was listing her humanity and he couldn't let that happened. Joel understood the best thing he could do to the world was keep her alive.
Does the lives he took along his path was something fair or good? I don't know, that's up to all of us to know, deep down.
Is it right to kill to save someone more important to you or should we take in consideration others feelings? Should we care Moe a out causes or people? Again, that's up to us to understand and take our conclusions.
• Epilogue - The Begging I'd The End is The Beginning
Like I said, the first game leads with a lot of themes and the characters presented have all diferentd opinions and points about them. Some themes were implied and others explicitly explored and answers were given to all sides in many directiins.
But one thing is for sure: the cure wasn't a immunity to a fungus but the ability to keep a childish like Peaceful Innocence, that resembles not only the childs or animals, but humans.
But in part 2 we will kill animals, 5he ones used to represent humanity. And Ellie, the last of us, the last one to expresses humanity, is getting full of rage and hate and the felling of vengenace. Does that means she is listing her humanity? Probably, but will need to wait to see how the game will reflect and represent that and develop that theme.
Submitted by The8BitShow | #Specialdealer Special Offer Online Shopping Store 2016
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