So I beat TLoU last night ::spoilers::

I played this game for the first time about 4 months ago. It was absolutely fantastic. Once I started I couldn't stop and even went back to play the beginning so the lady could watch it with me while I played and know what was going on. She seemingly didn't mind because it was "like watching a movie" I'm excited to play the next one, whenever that is.

Had it ended with something like. Ellie gives Joel the antibiotics..then she finds herself in the cell after having been caught by the bad guy and he makes promises of rape and mutilation..the screen goes black..and then we see Joel's eyes open up kind of like when a parent realizes something is wrong....then it fades to black again...The Last of Us. An ending like that would have made it my favorite game ever.

The best thing part 2 can do is build on Joel and Ellie’s relationship early on. Kill Joel off in an emotional sequence and then have Ellie go full revenge mode. Or visa versa....what a twist 10/10 already.

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The oh shite moment is Joel going back to finish off Marlene.

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But was it? I mean I fully expected as much.

Once he shot her and walked away, I figured he was done. I agree with him going back, but I didn't expect it.

I guess we wanted different things from the ending because I didn't want an "oh shite moment." I wanted something more introspective and that's exactly what they gave me. By the end I felt such pity for Joel. He's totally taken Ellie in as his adopted daughter but possibly at the cost of the future of mankind. And you can tell Ellie doesn't totally buy what he's telling her. I think she knows he's lying but isn't certain to what extent or she is choosing to lie to herself about it for what is certain to be temporary happiness.

That's what I love about the ending. It's very melancholy. I feel sadness for both of them but it's muddled with what both of them have chosen to believe and why. I think the story would be perfect without a TLOU2, but I'm open to see where Naughty Dog decides to go with it.

He didn't want to take the chance she would go back. You haven't played the DLC. The friend that was bitten when she was bitten was her girlfriend. Perhaps she would be willing to give her life to end the disease even if there was no guarantee. Maybe she would want to make sure other people didn't suffer like her girlfriend.

It was Joel being selfish. He didn't want his new daughter to die so he lied to her. Clearly she thought something was off, but she didn't know what it was.

There is a possibility she would want to go back and Joel wasn't willing to take that risk. Simple as that.

And once again, there was no guarantee cutting her brain out would do anyone any good at all. It could have been nothing more than a genetic abnormality that gave her temporary immunity but she still might have been willing to give her life. Joel was having none of that. Not again.

When Joel kills Marlene

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There is a possibility she would want to go back and Joel wasn't willing to take that risk. Simple as that.

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This. The Fireflies didn't tell Ellie that the procedure would kill her because they were afraid she would refuse, though I suspect they would have forced her anyway.

Joel didn't tell Ellie the procedure would kill her because he was afraid she would agree with the Fireflies and want to go back and he wasn't strong enough to lose his "daughter" a second time. His decision to save her is more about his own selfishness and fear and less about letting her make the decision. That's why he refuses to tell her.

The fact they made unclear what the future held for them was what I liked and it's why I was initially disappointed when the trailer for TLOU2 showed the story continued with Ellie (and I assume Joel). I was really hoping it would simply be set in the same world but cover totally different characters and a different region. I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, though.