Now that we’ve delved a little
into the World of proper use of game mechanics, it’s time we dive into a much
greater problem in gaming: sexism. Rather, the lack effort put into making some
games sexist. The Last of Us is a prime example of this failure.
The Last of Us follows the story
of Joel, who as you play through the game becomes obviously more and more of an
awful person. But the game’s real protagonist is Ellie, a girl who is not Ellen
Paige, who despite some efforts to make her out to be a typical female
protagonist, still manages to be useful and human enough that someone could
consider them to be a person. But, there is one scene that has been brought to
my attention. Within the game, Ellie is captured by a group of cannibals and is
psychologically tormented by their leader in a boss battle, and ends with her
collapsing in Joel’s arms. After all, in a game about psychopaths, mushroom
zombies, and terrorist organizations, what we really need to focus on is the
fact that a teenager is obviously independent enough to not need a parental
figure.
After all, as we know every 14
year old can easily handle being trapped in a cage, nearly hacked up for food,
and having a grown man threaten you as you are finally pushed to the point
where you hack open his head with a hatchet. Clearly, a fourteen year old would
also not collapse in the arms of their father figure. Especially if said father
figure was ill, and you were trying to keep him well, and said kidnapping displaced
you from knowing how that person’s health was. Even if that person is the last person
left you care about in the world, clearly no human being would ever collapse in
their arms crying seeing them alive and well.
But this doesn’t go far enough.
In fact, the game should have changed who the non-Ellie character was. Joel
should have died, and Tess, a different female character should have been the
playable not-protagonist. “But Martin,” you say, “Isn’t it actually progressive to have a female playable
character, rather than the standard brunette Caucasian male with a stubbly
beard that games are so known for these days?”
Well of course I’ve thought of
that, and that’s what makes this decision brilliant. Recall what this situation
is. Ellie is doing all the work, sexist because all the important work is being
relegated to a female character thanklessly. Tess is in Joel’s situation, stuck in a
building. Recall how many times the words “get back in the kitchen” have been
stated? But the clincher? Let’s take into account what scene is considered
sexist. Ellie collapsing, crying in Joel’s arms. Replace Joel with Tess and
guess what? You get a little girl… Crying in her mother figure’s arms. Such a situation is stating that a woman
needs to be a mother figure. Brilliant is it not? In fact, we need to take this
even further. Ellie should not even be a girl. This decision would then turn
the sexism into that a male, no matter what age, must always be the provider of
the family even if throughout most of the game the female character has been
doing the work to begin with. As long as there is one scene where a female
character is not in absolute complete control of the situation, it’s sexist.
It saddens me to know that the
creators behind The Last of Us missed a glorious opportunity to maintain the
proper amount of sexism in the game, and I dearly hope the proposed Ellie
focused Prequel DLC to come out will fix this problem.
The Last of Us gets a privilege out
of beard.
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