The Last of Us has Troy Baker as Joel Miller, but when Baker was giving his voice to the character, he was unsure of the character’s decisions.

The Last of Us is one of the most successful post-apocalyptic games ever released. While the story of the game portrays the chaotic condition of the virus-affected world, it highlights the emotional bonding between the two protagonists and how Joel prioritizes his love for Ellie over everything else at the end of the game.

The Last of Us voice artist Troy Baker wasn’t convinced by Joel’s decision initially. Image Credit: Naughty Dog.

Naughty Dog’s 2013 action-adventure game has one of the most unexpected yet controversial endings that often players question. Even the actor behind Joel Miller had doubts about the final actions of the character until he became a father and realized how justified all these things were.

Exploring The Last of Us’ ever so-controversial ending

The ending of The Last of Us is one of the most controversial ones even after a decade. Image Credit: Naughty Dog.

Despite the original game, The Last of Us was released more than a decade back in 2013, Naughty Dog released a remake in 2022 with an improved gameplay mechanism, combat system, and exploration. Still, the debate regarding the ending continues.

While The Last of Us Part III is already in discussion, the ending of the OG title still comes at the top of most emotional game endings. From the very beginning, Joel was told that he had been escorting Ellie to Fireflies, so they could extract the antidote from her body to save the world from the Cordyceps fungus.

This duo overcomes all the obstacles, and gradually, they develop a father-daughter bond as the story progresses toward the end. As the game reaches the climax, Joel, along with the players, comes to know this process requires a complex operation that will take the life of this little girl.

This information makes Joel desperate to save Ellie, and he mercilessly kills all the Fireflies that blocked his path. He doesn’t even spare the doctor who’s trying to perform the surgery. He rescues the unconscious Ellie, and in the end, he makes up a story for the little girl to keep her away from that harsh reality.

Troy Baker took some time to understand Neil Druckmann’s psychology while making The Last of Us

Until Troy Baker had his son, he wasn’t sure of the decisions Joel made in the game. Image Credit: Naughty Dog.

Since the game was released, this ending has often been questioned by fans. Players are pretty curious to know why the writer prioritizes saving Ellie’s life when her sacrifice could have saved thousands of lives. That’s a valid thing, and even the voice actor whom we hear as Joel in the original game, Troy Baker, had this same doubt until his son was born.

In the latest interview, Baker revealed that at the point when he was recording for Joel, he was a “disadvantage” to the game’s writer and creative director, Neil Druckmann, when it came to relating to Joel’s final decisions. He clearly offered his views, saying,

When we were making part one I was at a disadvantage to Neil, because Neil was a father. I was acting. This was a very real possibility for him — what do I look like in the event that I lose my daughter.

It took him five years to understand why Neil was trying to save Ellie at the cost of the entire mankind. In 2018, Baker had his son, and years after voicing the character, he realized the reasons behind his actions, as he mentioned,

But I do know that if I had the opportunity to save him I would do anything. I would do anything to save him.

Now that when people ask him about the decision of Joel saving Ellie, sacrificing the human world, he generally replies that “he did, he did save the world. It’s just that the world was that girl, and that’s it.“

The realization was late, but he completely understood the emotion of a father who was fighting against the entire world to save her daughter.

Currently, The Last of Us Part III is in discussion, and fans have been speculating on different aspects that Neil Druckmann must follow to elevate the game to a new level.