Entry Five

Images courtesy of Naughty Dog, Inc. (2013)

Well, since we gotta get out West, that means we need a car. I got a guy who owed me a couple of favors…Bill. He lives in his own abandoned town outside the QZ, and the paranoid bastard has the entire area booby-trapped—against infected, and trespassers. This place is Trap City. My leg got caught in a rope and scooped me right up…then, of course, we got ambushed by Stalkers. Ellie was trying to cut the counterweight, and I had to fight hanging upside-down, just shootin’ ‘em as they came at us. She got surrounded at one point, but I took care of them. I was worried there for a second. Ellie helped me down from Bill’s trap, and we kept moving, skating up and over buildings, trying to avoid more traps…bat shit crazy is what that was. But I found a bow and a couple arrows. I also upgraded my melee weapon—scissors taped to the end of a pipe: now that’s efficiency. New gear always does some good. Once we found Bill, the crazy bastard handcuffed Ellie to a pipe. Girl broke the pipe right off the wall and hit Bill over the head with it…she’s just about as crazy as he is. 
She’s sure got some fire in her.

Bill said he’d help us get a car so I can take Ellie to the next Firefly base out West, but we’ve gotta scour Trap City for parts to get her runnin’. Bill was tryin’ to talk me outta helping Ellie…said that when you got people depending on you, shit always blows up in your face. I guess he lost a partner a ways back…maybe that’s why he’s the way he is. I don’t know…maybe he’s right. I wonder if her immunity is worth all this trouble…maybe humanity is just on its way out. I’m just not sure if this is all worth it. But I do know that I’m damn sure gonna keep tryin’.

In this entry, we can really see the concepts of “fealty” and “oath-keeping” in Joel’s behavior. If his character is analogous to that of a knight in a Medieval quest narrative, then we can surely identify this behavior as honorable. He made an oath to Marlene that he would deliver Ellie to the Capitol building, and when that drop-off became impossible, he made another oath to Tess that he would see Ellie through to the end. In doing so, he swore his fealty to Ellie—his loyalty, and his protection. At the very beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (14th century), Sir Gawain uphold his fealty to King Arthur by volunteering in his place to participate in a beheading game with the Green Knight. His loyalty to his King provokes him to volunteer in his place, because a kingdom is nothing without its king. Gawain goes on to make an oath to the Green Knight, “…‘I am called Gawain,/Who deals you this blow, whatever happens after,/On this day next year to accept another from you/With what weapon you choose, and from no other…’” (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight lines 380-384). Gawain beheads the Green Knight, thinking that if he kills the Green Knight, that there would be no reason for them to meet a year later to receive a reciprocate blow. Unfortunately, the Green Knight’s body picks up his severed head, and restates the grounds of the agreement; Gawain must still receive a reciprocating blow—in this case, he looks forward to getting beheaded. Although this situation is not what Gawain had expected, he still upholds his oath. Joel similarly did not expect his quest to continue past the Capitol building, and yet he stayed with Ellie, escorting and protecting her across the country. I decided to depict Joel questioning the point of this quest, and then reaffirming his determination to stay with Ellie to enhance Joel’s sense of fealty toward Ellie. He may not feel any obligation to the thought of a vaccine or cure, but he is loyal to Ellie. In this way, both Gawain and Joel uphold their oaths, and maintain their fealty. 
Quest Expectations/Terms: Oaths; Tests; Chivalric Code; Adventure