Why I believe #TheLastOfUs is one of the greatest stories ever told in video game format: a very long thread.
Warning: contains spoilers about the story and ending of the (first) game.

TLOU is a game about the frail possibility of love in a world where the structures of society collapsed. You can divide each chapter by the relationships portrayed. Joel and Sarah. Joel and Tess. Bill and Frank. Sam and Henry. David and his group. And, ultimately, Joel and Ellie.

I could write 1000 lines about each of these, but in all of them you see the impact of society's collapse on human relationships. How love can make you vulnerable. How becoming invulnerable to love can turn you into something less than human.

And, in the case of David and his group, how some people will become monsters to survive.
And that puts into perspective one decisive question: in order to survive, who would you become?

Consider Joel. A man broken by the death of his daughter. Carrying an empty heart for 20 years. The story of The Last of Us is the story of Joel regaining his humanity, by becoming a father again.

Some people said that, in the end, Joel made the wrong choice. Sacrificing Ellie might give humanity a chance. Maybe this is even what she would have wanted. But as Joel says, this is not on her. It's not her choice to make.

So, as a father, he makes the choice, and he lies to Ellie about it. He decides for her. And decides to save her. And even if she finds out about it in the future, and she never forgives him, he will never regret the choice that he made.

And if you think he was wrong, I don't think you should become a parent. I don't know about you, but any society that would ask a father to sacrifice a son or daughter, in order to survive, is a society that isn't worth saving.

So maybe Joel's choice wasn't in the best interests of humanity, but it was the only way to regain his own sense of humanity. Saving Ellie, Joel became a father again. He embraced the vulnerability of love he had denied for so long.

That, to me, is a hopeful ending. We save our lives, we save our own. We don't sacrifice our children to save our own lives. Endure and survive, as human beings, as much as we can, for as long as we can. Even if we are the last of us.
/end