What the heart desires: "The Last of Us" gave its heroes a reason to live - voila! culture

Promo for the last episode of season 1 of "The Last of Us" (HBO)

The dizzying success of the first season of "The Last of Us" is the kind of puzzle that is fun to solve.

As already written here in the review that accompanied its rise, it does not present a special innovation, nor does it even jump again in a fit of nostalgia to a genre that was previously successful.

The Walking Dead still spawns endless spin-offs, and dystopias about disease, plagues and disasters have been a popular staple on the TV menu in recent years.

And yet, not only did "The Last of Us" manage to become a huge success among fans of the genre, it also attracted audiences who don't necessarily connect to its type of content.

It is possible that the answer to this question, or at least part of it, lies in its surprising resemblance to another series starring Pedro Pascal, "The Mandalorian".

And the ninth and final episode of the first season further emphasizes the power of this idea.

"The Mandalorian" and "The Last of Us" hide in their center a non-romantic love story between an adult character and a young character.

In both, the adult character carries with her an enormous trauma that dulls her life and turns it into a technical routine of survival for the sake of survival, while the young woman is injured by surprise in order to rekindle the fire in her, to rediscover the emotion that was closed under the mountains of protection, giving her something to fight for, an opportunity to redeem herself .

In return, the adult character gives the young character the opportunity to trust someone, grow with his help and fulfill herself as she could not before.

The special thing about this love is that without it, each of the characters is lost on their own.

One is helpless and the other is hopeless.

The existence of this relationship, its strengthening over time and its effect on each of the partners, is not only a matter of the heart.

It's a reason to really live.

The power of this idea and the way it is expressed in "The Last of Us" (we will discuss "The Mandalorian" on another occasion) is what turned it from another series about survival in a nightmarish reality, into a small light of hope that millions connected to every week.

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The tragedies did not erase the curiosity.

Bella Ramsay as Ellie, "The Last of Us" (Photo: HBO)

Joel's choice to rob humanity of redemption in favor of his own redemption is so much more powerful because of the way the series built his story of coming back to life after the loss of Sarah.

A shadow of a man who would spare his soul for the sake of a girl he didn't know just months before

The beauty is that, looking back on this season, the idea of ​​love as a survival tool, as a connection that makes the whole greater than the sum of its parts, returns time and time again in a smart and moving way.

The automatic association is of course "Long, Long Time", the third episode of the season that has already become the most talked about episode of television in 2023 - and rightfully so.

The love story in it is beautiful and refreshing in itself, but it also ties in perfectly with this theme of survival.

Bill (Nick Offerman) could survive without Frank (Murray Bartlett), the reverse is likely not true.

But life without Frank was the same as Joel's without Ellie - survival without a purpose.

The pull of time until the inevitable end.

The connection between them instills in Bill the justification for survival, brings into his life the person for whom existence - however difficult it may be - is worth it.

Therefore, the way they both chose to end their lives is far beyond a tear-jerking romantic gesture.

Frank realized that he was not interested in surviving aimlessly, just like Joel in the moment of truth.

From the moment the reason for living the injury,

This is of course not the only example.

The motif of living for others strikes already in the first episode with Joel and Sarah, with Sam and Henry in the fifth episode of the season, and to a large extent also in the seventh episode which returns to the incident of Ellie's bite in the abandoned mall, at the end of which Ellie and Riley decide to die together.

Almost every significant relationship presented in The Last of Us, including borderline characters like Kathleen (Melanie Lynskey), is built on a bond without which life is worth much less.

Craig Meizin and Neil Druckman, the creators of the series, understood the enormous power of this motif.

So, even though it's billed as a "zombie series" (and yes, we know, technically they're not really zombies), the undead of The Last of Us are only marginally offensive.

As in the "Chernobyl" he created, Meizin almost deliberately avoids falling into the clichés of the genre.

Yes, there were isolated cases of hiding from a mushroom man in a dim room, but the great threat to Ellie and Joel was not death but separation.

A threat that only grows as the final episode progresses and both realize its meaning.

This understanding allowed the series to constantly play on the possibility that one of the infected would jump on the heroes at any given moment, especially when Ellie starts running enthusiastically to discover something new.

But at the same time, the connection between the two and its meaning were greater than another fight against a bitter enemy.

In their place we got another scene of jokes or dreams for the future or a promise of a song.

Love as a survival tool.

"The Last of Us" (Photo: HBO)

If, thanks to Ellie's death, the cure for humanity is found, all the others will be healed, except for Joel who will go back to living without a purpose, without the spark that makes continuity worthwhile.

Without her he will become a zombie while around him everyone will become human again

Joel's choice to rob humanity of redemption in favor of his own redemption is so much more powerful because of the way the series built his story of coming back to life after the loss of Sarah.

A shadow of a man who would spare his soul for the sake of a girl he didn't know just months before.

It is such an egoistic choice and yet so empathetic, so human, so reasonable towards himself.

If, thanks to Ellie's death, the cure for humanity is found, all the others will be healed, except for Joel who will go back to living without a purpose, without the spark that makes continuity worthwhile.

Without her he will become a zombie while around him everyone will become human again.

From the moment this taste returned to his life, he is no longer ready to exist without it.

So many film and television adaptations of video games have failed because of this lack of understanding of a great humanity that shines above the effects and fidelity to the source material.

The choice of "The Last of Us" to increase this part far beyond Joel Vallee's story is what prevented it from becoming another incarnation of "The Walking Dead".

However, beyond this strictness to an enormous sensitivity in writing, directing and filming, one cannot help but admire the way the series hit a mark in every casting, time after time.

Each of them, good and bad, left a mark, touched an exposed sadness, evoked feelings towards characters who entered and left our lives within one chapter.

Still, above all it is Bella Ramsay who made this journey so worthwhile.

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made this journey worthwhile.

"The Last of Us" (Photo: HBO)

It is not just about the impressive overcoming of all the terrible clichés of teenage television characters, but the pure way in which Eli sees the world.

The cynicism and tragedies hardened her, but did not erase her natural curiosity, the courage to believe in others and have new experiences.

When so many around her are busy surviving for the sake of survival, Eli dares to experience life as an adventure, despite the dangers and difficulties.

She dares to demand authenticity from those around her even when the much more logical option is to pretend and repress.

This courage, more than anything else, melts both Joel's defenses and ours as viewers.

He is also the one who made this love story between them so addictive, exciting and touching.

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