They see her as a hope, as a possible means to an end. Joel sees her worth as a person, as an end in itself.

Please consider the following.

Not necessarily. A good utilitarian would have done a lot more research to find out whether the benefit was actually worth the death.

I don't think that equating a violent thought that is not acted upon as evil is a healthy mindset. People aren't inherently evil, but they are inherently animals. And there are millenia of instincts behind all of our cognition.

Ellie clearly undervalues her own life.

She is also still just 15 years old at the oldest. I don't doubt that she is mature for her age, but I do doubt her ability to make a judgement call of that magnitude by herself.

If you're asking if I was Ellie and my dad did the same thing Joel did? I would 100% not question my father. Ever. For anything. But my father is also a badass (ok, Joel is pretty badass, too).

True, but imagine if it was you. If you were willing to die to save the world and your family/friend stopped you (in a questionable manner), would you still feel guilty? Ellie didn't make the choice to condemn the world. Joel did.

You know, when they discuss why she's immune to it, the story made it sound like that Ellie wasn't immune, but she had mutated spores that were protecting her instead of harming her. So if anything, she made David immune, you know, before she played Jackson Pollock with his face.

I like that perspective. But I can't help but feel that Joel's motivation was purely for his own selfish desire to keep her, especially after losing Sarah. But on the flip side, she did know Joel was lying so he wouldn't really have protected her from feeling guilty enough to have to make the sacrifice, so... I'm not…

My translation of the ending (specifically the lie) is that Joel knows Ellie would choose to be sacrificed, not because she wants to but because she feels she has to. Otherwise she would have that guilt of living a life at the cost of throwing away others. So Joel's lie is a decision by him to transfer that burden of…

Being reported is OK.

8 years for about $7,000 worth of graffiti? That's crazy. How is society served by jailing a guy for what really should be misdemeanors and having him come out as, in all likelihood, a hard-core criminal with an advanced degree in mayhem? Let the guy do community service for 5 years. Make him pay twice the damage…

When I first finished it I thought she said "it's what she wants", which could change things quite a bit. Having watched this video however and heard what she actually said, I have a little less sympathy for her. It was still damn cold the way he killed her though (in a cruel but entertaining way of course).

Yeah the whole 'You know it's what she would want" crap is just an excuse she's giving herself.

I feel like his lie toward Ellie was very in line with his devotion to her, as was the endless killing and final defensive murders at the end. He had already accepted that he gave up his morals and humanity for survival, and with Ellie as his one light in the world, he was bound to be possessive, willing to mislead…

Joel's lie was never a reversal of what he had done before - it was exactly in line and the greatest thing he could do for Ellie. It was taking responsibility as a father figure, realizing that the child would die if she knew the truth. Ellie is suffering horrific survivors guilt and she's had her head filled with…

Well maybe not Microsoft the company, but his position in the company?

I don't think I've laughed so hard at a visual metaphor that fit the context so much. I'm sitting here at work, laughing out loud. Well done, sir. Well done.

Yes! Exactly! Finally, someone's willing to stand up and defend giant businesses from this generation's disgusting sense of entitlement. I'm so sick of people thinking they somehow have the right to use a public forum to openly express their views on a game company's poor treatment of their customer base. You, sir,…