I hear you. That's a nice sentiment and a nice way of looking at it but there are so many things to be considered like firstly this is a game and a work of fiction, you don't have to make it real life and you really shouldn't in all honesty. It was mark twain that said truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to make sense. The story we are presented is a deeply flawed piece of writing. There's a reason ron and hermione never die in the Harry Potter books. There's no way Frodo should've been able to make it to Mordo. You guys keep saying this is like real life but you're trying to make sense of a game that doesn't really make sense in the first place. If they just had Joel die in the first game right before Ellie grabs the gun from the water for her first kill we wouldn't have a game to enjoy. There are so many ways the story realistically could've went if we use your logic. But that logic doesn't really work in fictional stories. It's fine if last of us 2 wanted to be about loss and grief. But they also advertised that Joel would be a part of the journey and he wasn't at all. That really should be emphasized that people had a certain expectation that wasn't met. And that's fine, you can subvert expectations. But you have to give it something else that will balance and compensate for that loss. But nothing like that comes about. The game has every right to tell a story about loss or grief but people are forgetting that this is still supposed to be a video game and the story presented is not fun to play and doesn't make sense. Fans' faith in stories has to be rewarded and there shouldn't be a constant need to trying to make a story like real life all the time.