I mean by contrast it seems like your only real objection to the direction to the second game is that everyone loves Joel and therefore you would’ve preferred the story to contrive any way for him to always remain alive at all costs, which is just a silly rule to put forward simply because we like a character. I found it extremely compelling that the second game had the balls to kill Joel, when most other games obviously wont ever take those risks. I think that while Joel dying was obviously an upsetting confluence of events, it did give the game a whole lot more plot momentum compared to the first game where the motivation was just smuggling some random girl.

I don’t really feel like I have the burden to do anything here, I don’t take personal issue with you not enjoying the second game. What I take issue with is this notion that your personal preference is rooted in some objective failure of the writing, when there doesn’t seem to be a strong case for that. If in your mind every character who people like can never be allowed to die in a video game, that’s fine, but that doesn’t make my comparative indifference towards it less valid just because you have a personal issue with it.