First post here :) Been a avid follower since I played and have watched many let's plays/views/analysis videos on the game as it's stuck with me for so long. GOTY easily, if not the best game (story wise) to be released in...forever.
So, recently the Creative Director Neil Druckmann explains his take on the ending - contary to what everyone believed e.g she accepted Joels lie because she didn't want to break their bond etc
http://o.canada.com/2013/09/17/the-last-of-us-how-the-games-creator-envisions-its-ending/
“Then we come to that ending and that lie and that okay and what does that okay mean? It’s definitely not a complacent ‘yea I’ll go along with you’, in fact, it’s the opposite. It’s Ellie waking up for the first time, waking up and realizing she can’t rely on him anymore. While she loves him for what he’s done for her, she hates him for robbing her of that choice. She knows that she has to leave him and make her own decisions and mistakes.”
What does everybody think about this? To me, it sounds more like we can release TLOU2 focusing on Ellie as she knows she has to leave him rather than the actual intended meaning of the ending. I can't really express how I feel about it - I don't understand why Ellie would have thought about the future with Joel and be so visibly upset in the ranch scene when he wants to leave her (the point where you realize that they basically are Father/Daughter - best cut scene in gaming history too imo may I add) if she was only going on this journey because she felt safest with Joel to get her there and would have been happy to give her own life and leave Joel with absolutely nothing losing a second daughter. Especially considering the whole Winter where she is caring for him, sleeping next to him etc.
I know it's explained/mentioned off-hand that they only think it's a case of a simple blood sample and not Ellie having to die - so would she have been happier to accept Joels lie knowing the true intentions of the Fireflies and the circumstances? I just can't see that being the case if she knew everything - plus the fact that a vaccine really wouldn't have changed anything at that stage considering it had been 20 years since the outbreak. Ellie's smart, she would have known something was up for Joel to have lied to her - and obviously would have known it was because she would be have been sacraficed or have had to have stayed with the Fireflies, otherwise she'd have just given blood - thats it. I know there's no Black and White especially in this game, but I just don't know what to make of it. I guess you tend to forget she's a confused 14 year old girl who is looking for a father figure (in the comics I believe she asks one of the Military if she can go with him) but then suffering from Survivors Guilt and the emotional trauma of what happened with David. I guess it's the fact she was still just a kid, and couldn't have comprehended everything and felt she could stop more cases like Sam, Tess etc happening.
I almost don't want to believe this is the intended ending - it's pretty brutal and grim to say Ellie hates Joel for not giving her the choice when Ellie was all Joel had to live for. But then I guess you could argue was Joel actually in the wrong for using Ellie as a replacement for his daughter - and would he have cared as much if he never had a daughter to begin with? So many questions. My take on it was simple - even though she seemed hesitant and troubled she couldn't stop other cases like Tess, Sam and her best friend Ellie accepted Joels lie because she loved him like a Dad and didn't care about anything else at that stage. But I guess in retrospect with how distant she seemed, how disinterested she was when Joel mentioned her and Sarah being friends etc and how hesitant she was at the end...did she really grow to hate Joel and realize his motives were purely based on her being a replacement for his daughter?
Thoughts?