The world of The Last of Us, like so much of post-apocalyptic and especially zombie fiction, is a world of dog eat dog savagery. But does it have to be?
In this video, I talk about the way human nature is interpreted by The Last of Us, The Walking Dead and similar franchises, and how this doesn’t stack up with reality. Cooperation and mutual aid is a key part of how we survive, not something forced upon us by social order, and the complete collapse of that spirit would threaten true extinction for our species. This is something that the Last of Us series could choose to lean more into in future instalments, offering true hope for humanity.
The video references this article on Disaster Communism, by the Out of the Woods collective: https://libcom.org/blog/disaster-communism-part-1-disaster-communities-08052014
I used footage from this video by Like Stories of Old: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT_sKGbP1yY&t=467s
The Last of Us is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Computer Entertainment. Players control Joel, a smuggler tasked with escorting a teenage girl, Ellie, across a post-apocalyptic United States.
The Last of Us Part II is a 2020 action-adventure game developed by Naughty Dog and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. Set five years after The Last of Us (2013), the game focuses on two playable characters in a post-apocalyptic United States whose lives intertwine: Ellie, who sets out for revenge after suffering a tragedy, and Abby, a soldier who becomes involved in a conflict between her militia and a religious cult.
This video contains spoilers for both The Last of Us and The Last of Us Part II.
Philip Dickens 