Neil Druckmann believes that Joel did the right thing in The Last of Us finale and he would have "done the same"
The finale of The Last of Us left many questions about Joel's actions. Did he do the right thing? The game's creator, Neil Druckmann, thinks so.
(Warning: The following are spoilers for the game and the first season of the series).
Here's What We Know
In the finale of The Last of Us, Joel kills many Fireflies when he learns that in order to create a cure for Ellie's cordyceps, he needs an operation that will kill her.
At that point, Joel already considers Ellie his child, and having lost one daughter, he can't afford to lose another. But whether he did the right thing is a question that has been discussed since the game's release in 2013.
Ahead of the second season of the series, IGN asked the cast and creators for their opinion, and Neil Druckmann strongly supported Joel, believing that he simply did what he had to do.
"I think Joel did the right thing," Druckmann said. "If I were in Joel's shoes, I hope I could have done the same thing to save my daughter."
The showrunner of the series, Craig Mazin, added that he would probably have done the same thing if he were in Joel's shoes. "But I'd like to think I wouldn't," said Mazin, adding, "There's an interesting moral struggle in that. And that's why the ending of the first game is so provocative and wonderful. It doesn't let the player get off easy."
Mazin continued: "People get to the end of the game and the question is: what would you do? What would you do if you had the opportunity to save the world by sacrificing your child? This brings us back to Abraham and Isaac. It's so profound. The idea of sacrifice to save the world."
"It's the difference between, okay, if I had to kill a random person to save who knows how many lives, in the abstract, you would say, well, yeah, that makes sense, sure," Druckmann added. "But now, take away the random person and it's your child. Now the answer is completely different."
We will see the consequences of Joel's actions on 13 April in the second season of The Last of Us on HBO.
Source: IGN
