*shakes You* Joel's Choice Had Nothing To Do With The Logistics Of The Cure Or The Competency Of The

*shakes you* joel's choice had nothing to do with the logistics of the cure or the competency of the fireflies. homeboy was not sitting there weighing the statistical probability of the fireflies creating a cure or crunching the numbers of how they'd distribute it. he did not care abt any of that shit!! it was a purely emotional decision based on his love for ellie and that's the point!! god himself could've come down and told him that the cure would've worked and everything would've gone back to pre-cordyceps society and HE STILL WOULD'VE KILLED EVERY SINGLE FIREFLY IN THAT HOSPITAL. just for two more years with ellie! cause he loves her!!

likewise, ellie's anger at him is so much more than "he killed a bunch of ppl :(" he's the only person she's never trusted (minus riley) and he lied to her abt the most important thing in her life. he essentially told her, little miss survivor's guilt, that her immunity meant nothing, that riley and tess and sam and henry's deaths meant nothing. everything she went through, and she didn't deserve the truth.

its so boring when ppl try to reduce joel's decision down to logic when the whole point is that it's an illogical from an outside utilitarian point of view, but bc we know joel's perspective we're inclined to justify him. "well the cure was impossible, ergo he was right". like no, that's not why he did anything. you might've been thinking abt that in retrospect but joel's character sure as hell wasn't

Late night rambling — It's finals week and I drank too much coffee.

Both Joel&Ellie TLOU and Silco&Jinx Arcane scratch that Lone Wolf and Club trope that I live for, but there's just.. Idk. Added layers of selfishness on Joel and Silco's part that have me by the throat. How they both refused to sacrifice their daughters. In Silco's case for something he genuinely believed in and dedicated his life to, but Jinx didn't care too strongly towards. For Joel something he couldn't give less of a shit about, but Ellie wanted more than anything.

I'm not sure how to word it right now (it's almost midnight over here lol) butyea

can someone please get these hoes under control i'm BUSY

the last of us was so good at distracting us with the beautiful love story of old gay men that we all forgot about how ellie ferally stabbed that trapped, infected man while staring into his eyes and didn't mention it at all afterward despite asking joel "you ever kill one? was it hard? like, knowing they were people once?"

Random thought but I really do fuck w/ the way they wrote Ellie’s Jackson's scenes. Yes, Pedro’s monologue was gr& and I’m glad he’s getting his flowers for that, but there’s just so much about Ellie’s interactions with Jackson that got me by the throat lol. Like easily one of my favorite additions to the whole series. 

I love that bit of Ellie sitting in the makeshift theater with the other kids looking anxious and on edge without Joel. I love how the camera focused on her longly jealous expression when she saw Joel and Tommy hug. I love how she didn’t hesitate to defend Joel when Maria interrogated her about him. I love “you deserve to have a choice-” “let’s go.”

I mentioned this before but God I’m obsessed with how Joel’s monologue illustrates hows Ellie is his weakness while Ellie’s Jackson scenes + their argument illustrate how he’s her safety.

And not to repeat my Bill and Frank tangent but it’s another textbook case of what a good television adoption should do. With television being a passive medium, it gives them a chance to show slower scenes focusing on nonplayer characters for extended periods of time. It’s all very good and is gonna make the finale hit so hard lol

This is not very “you’re cargo” of him