LogFAQs > #950469223

pegusus123456 posted...

No.

All arguments about whether the Fireflies are capable of making a vaccine/cure or what they'd do with it are absolutely irrelevant because none of that factored into Joel's decision. Joel believed they were capable of it. Joel knew Ellie would willingly die for the effort. Joel murdered Marlene - Ellie's adopted mother - solely to stop her from going after them. Joel lied about the situation when Ellie asked about it.

Joel saved her because he refused to go through another daughter dying. It's understandable. It's sympathetic. And it's selfish.

This...

The argument that the solution to the moral dilemma is that there is no moral dilemma because the cure couldn't possibly work has always seemed childish to me. The whole point is for you to think about the fact that Joel is basically massacring the scientists that for all we know are closest to finding a cure and possibly right on the verge of finding one. We know that Ellie would ultimately choose to make the sacrifice if she was given the choice but Joel makes it for her.

Joel is fully aware that he is mortal, he has lived a life of immense hardship and suffering and has lived through the end of the world in constant battle killing and seeing friends die all around him, hell he has even had a daughter killed 'for the greater good' before. You can understand why he would make the choice he made even if he thought Ellie could basically be turned into a cure. He doesn't care about 'the world' as much as he cares about the person right beside him.

Joel isn't religious, he isn't a humanist, he isn't a ethic philosopher. Why would he care about 'humanity' more than he cares about Ellie at that point?