[dmahurin]

Originally Posted by Shoes

Can someone who played the game comment on how the game compares to the series in regards to the information Joel is given at the hospital?

Spoilers on last night's episode below.

Spoiler!

In the series, Joel is essentially given 30 seconds of dialogue regarding why Ellie is going into surgery but it seems like it is anything but a a sure thing.

To me the finale is all about portraying Joel as a conflicted protagonist. He's obviously an anti-hero from the beginning but takes a major step of serving his own purposes and desires as he saves Ellie since he obviously loves and cares for her.

I find it hard to disagree with his actions though when the audience is not fully aware of the Firefly's homework in regards to the procedure. If Ellie is truly the most valuable resource in finding a cure, wouldn't you want to be absolutely sure that this procedure has a very solid chance of producing a cure before brain surgery? Or even if the Doctor needed to have a better understanding of what was going on inside her brain/skull to further research on finding a cure. We as an audience are not given enough information. The dialogue from last night's episode:

"Our doctor thinks that the cordyceps in Ellie has grown with her since birth. It produces a kind of chemical messenger. It makes normal cordyceps think that she's cordyceps. It's why she's immune." - Marlene

It just seems like the surgery is more of a "hail mary". I didn't feel Joel's decision to save Ellie was unjust. I would feel much more conflicted if there was solid evidence or reasoning why they needed to perform brain surgery.

Appreciate anyone who can chime in.

Your second spoiler paragraph basically nails it. Everything's grey. Good or bad is completely subjective to your perspective is kind of the whole theme of the game/show.

Spoiler!

the game handles it basically the same. Joel wakes up, gets the story about it's in her brain this is what we are doing. In the game there is recordings you can find from exploring that go a little deeper, but the driving force of the story is the same. The fireflies are doing what is right to them to save the world. From Joel's perspective, that would be ending the world. Joel did save the world, his world. But at what price?