Mmm, see, I've been thinking about the practicalities of the vaccine, and while I still firmly believe it wouldn't have mattered how effective that vaccine may have been (it could have been a insta-cure magic button or, like, a cataclysmic failure that makes the 'shroomy dudes breathe fire or something - either way, Joel would never allow Ellie die if he was capable of preventing it period full stop end of line case fucking closed) but I don't think Joel threw away all humanity for Ellie.
Ellie's not really "immune"; her infection is benign. They have absolutely no clue why this is the case. Nothing in her blood or cerebral-spinal fluid explains why she's not bleeding from the eyes and gibbering. Since the growth begins in the brain, yes, they may need to remove it, but only once all other options are exhausted; otherwise you've just killed the goose with the golden eggs, you know? It's suspicious to me that the Fireflies are so quick to go with "TAKE THE BRAIN", especially if Ellie is unique (and do we know if she is?). If that's their way of getting samples, I wonder at how sophisticated their equipment actually is; how capable they are of synthesising a vaccine. And how they'll distribute it. And who they'll distribute it to. If you have a vaccine, would you give it to a Hunter? Would you give it to David? Follow that thought out the end and you might have a horrible sort of eugenics taking place - only the people the Fireflies deem worthy get vaccinated. Or someone shoots the Fireflies, steals their vaccine, and they get to decide who goes shroomy. In their fervent quest to find a way to rise up from the ashes, the Fireflies may not have considered their plans all the way through. Their pinning all their hopes on one thing, imbuing it with power it doesn't have. Vaccine = "an end to the nightmare", says Marlene, but it doesn't. The Cordyceps dealt a heavy blow, but the entire game is a flailing, screaming testament to humanity's capacity to tear itself apart given sufficient fear or desperation or hatred.
On the other hand, I wouldn't say the human race is totally screwed. Civilisation as we know it is a write-off; there's nothing remaining of the previous infrastructure but the military, but the biosphere is more than fine (so many plants!) and there are communities. Agriculture! Horses! Fresh water! Medicine! Tommy's place, Jackson, has electrical power! Joel still knows how to drive a car! It's only twenty years since the outbreak and already there's someone born with benign mutation that negates the threat of infection - in less than a single generation. What if Ellie's children are like her? What if there are other people like her already?
None of this, of course, means Joel is less of a bastard but - I don't know, I wasn't disappointed in him. It seemed entirely within his character. He's a man of the present. Past is over, future may not happen, live through this moment and keep up that habit, whatever you have to do - and in that moment, what Joel had to do was keep Ellie alive, and that was all that mattered.
no subject
Ellie's not really "immune"; her infection is benign. They have absolutely no clue why this is the case. Nothing in her blood or cerebral-spinal fluid explains why she's not bleeding from the eyes and gibbering. Since the growth begins in the brain, yes, they may need to remove it, but only once all other options are exhausted; otherwise you've just killed the goose with the golden eggs, you know? It's suspicious to me that the Fireflies are so quick to go with "TAKE THE BRAIN", especially if Ellie is unique (and do we know if she is?). If that's their way of getting samples, I wonder at how sophisticated their equipment actually is; how capable they are of synthesising a vaccine. And how they'll distribute it. And who they'll distribute it to. If you have a vaccine, would you give it to a Hunter? Would you give it to David? Follow that thought out the end and you might have a horrible sort of eugenics taking place - only the people the Fireflies deem worthy get vaccinated. Or someone shoots the Fireflies, steals their vaccine, and they get to decide who goes shroomy. In their fervent quest to find a way to rise up from the ashes, the Fireflies may not have considered their plans all the way through. Their pinning all their hopes on one thing, imbuing it with power it doesn't have. Vaccine = "an end to the nightmare", says Marlene, but it doesn't. The Cordyceps dealt a heavy blow, but the entire game is a flailing, screaming testament to humanity's capacity to tear itself apart given sufficient fear or desperation or hatred.
On the other hand, I wouldn't say the human race is totally screwed. Civilisation as we know it is a write-off; there's nothing remaining of the previous infrastructure but the military, but the biosphere is more than fine (so many plants!) and there are communities. Agriculture! Horses! Fresh water! Medicine! Tommy's place, Jackson, has electrical power! Joel still knows how to drive a car! It's only twenty years since the outbreak and already there's someone born with benign mutation that negates the threat of infection - in less than a single generation. What if Ellie's children are like her? What if there are other people like her already?
None of this, of course, means Joel is less of a bastard but - I don't know, I wasn't disappointed in him. It seemed entirely within his character. He's a man of the present. Past is over, future may not happen, live through this moment and keep up that habit, whatever you have to do - and in that moment, what Joel had to do was keep Ellie alive, and that was all that mattered.