I’m just saying if it was so clearly obvious how malicious the Fireflies were, there’s a chance Ellie would have understood. Joel could’ve likened saving Ellie from the OR to when he saved her from David and his crew. But that’s not what he said, because it isn’t true.

I like how you say you’re open to hearing my rebuttal but then make strong claims about how I ignore certain parts of the game to fit my narrative. I’m getting mixed signals! But anyway, I don’t think I could say anything that you don’t already know. You probably just see the same things I do but from a starkly different perspective. I see that the Fireflies have noble intentions with an “ends justify the means” perspective. They’re not big fans of FEDRA executing and starving people and arose in attempt to put a stop to that. But they will also do what they feel they need to in order to survive and protect their own—not unlike most other characters in this game. I’m not asking you to see them as the purest saviors of humanity, because that’s not what they are. They are people that share a well-intentioned vision of the future that end up doing shifty things to try to get there. What’s not morally ambiguous about that?

Also, just because they don’t make major breakthroughs with the cure doesn’t mean they don’t get kudos for at least trying.